I have data like .... in multiline string $lines 
___DATA___
#Pattern 1 - aaa <anything> bbb <anything> ccc <whitespaces> dddd
aaa
 xxxxxxx
 bbb
    ccc
dddd
-------------------------------------
# Pattern 2 - aaa <anything> bbb <anything> ccc <whitespaces> dddd
aaa
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    xxxxxxx
  bbb
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    xxxx
    xx
ccc
dddd

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I want 
print  $#{[$lines =~ /aaa.*bbb.*ccc\s*dddd/gsi]} + 1 . "\n";

[download]
to give me 2. But it gives me 1. I assume that the culprut is .* Any way to get around this?

In reply to regex matches more than I want by Anonymous Monk

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