I can reproduce what you describe. Firstly, two text files which only contain the string 'pl'. 

$ cat junk
pl

[download]
$ cat junk2
pl

[download]

One matches your regex, the other doesn't:

$ perl -nE 'say +(/p.{2,6}/) ? "match" : "no match"' junk
match

[download]
$ perl -nE 'say +(/p.{2,6}/) ? "match" : "no match"' junk2
no match

[download]

A closer look inside the files explains why.

$ cat -vet junk
pl^M$

[download]
$ cat -vet junk2
pl$

[download]

[In case you're unfamiliar with the command, cat -vet, displays carriage returns as "^M" and newlines as "$".]

-- Ken

In reply to Re: Confusing regex match. by kcott
in thread Confusing regex match. by Anonymous Monk

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