Use a negated character class: 
$temp = "notfrom:nowhere";
# Match zero or more non-f characters followed by "from:"
$temp =~ s/[^f]*from://;
print "$temp\n";

[download]
Prints "nowhere".

In reply to Re: how to express $temp =~ s/.*?from://; in perl 4 by Anonymous Monk
in thread how to express $temp =~ s/.*?from://; in perl 4 by Anonymous Monk

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