Also, does this affect non-AS builds of 5.8?

Yes. This be very very very very serious.

I couldn't test on perl-5.8.x as it doesn't currently build (same goes for bleadperl -- 5.9.x), but at least perl-5.6.x is fine (the upcoming perl-5.6.2 ;d)

update: Well putting \x23 (aka '#') yields expected results (?x-ism:\w+ \x23 ).

I highly doubt that itappears to be trying to match a \n at that position, but it would still be nice of the re was all in one line like we have come to expect.

update: Check this out

#! perl -slw
use strict;
my( @for ) = 
( 
qr[\w+\#],
qr[\w+ \# ]x,
qr[\w+ [#] ]x,
qr[\w+ \Q#\E ]x,
qr[\w+ \x23 ]x,
);

print for @for;


my $r = "the# stringy# the# dude# foy ";

print $r;

for my $s( @for ) {
    my( @m ) = $r =~ /$s/g;
    warn scalar @m;
}
__END__

# on 5.8
##########################
(?-xism:\w+\#)
(?x-ism:\w+ \#
)
(?x-ism:\w+ [#]
)
(?x-ism:\w+ \#\\E\
)
(?x-ism:\w+ \x23 )
the# stringy# the# dude# foy
4 at - line 21.
4 at - line 21.
4 at - line 21.
0 at - line 21.
4 at - line 21.

# on 5.6
##########################
(?-xism:\w+\#)
(?x-ism:\w+ \# )
(?x-ism:\w+ [#] )
(?x-ism:\w+ \#\\E\ )
(?x-ism:\w+ \x23 )
the# stringy# the# dude# foy
4 at - line 21.
4 at - line 21.
4 at - line 21.
0 at - line 21.
4 at - line 21.
[download]

MJD says you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo! I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6x+5.8x. I take requests. ** The Third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.