If you have Perl version 5.10+ regex extensions, you might also consider the  (*COMMIT) backtracking control verb. Used in conjunction with (*FAIL), this can produce a "hard" stop if a pattern is found that's as hard as you could ever want.

Give a man a fish:  <%-{-{-{-<

In reply to Re: Can I have a hard stop on a match by AnomalousMonk
in thread Can I have a hard stop on a match by BillB

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