If you want it to work across newlines, you need to do a couple things. First, make sure all the lines are in a single string. Second, if you are using . and want it to match any character including a newline, use the m//s flag. Without /s, it will match any character except a newline.

The other issue is keeping what is supposed to match the inside of the comment from matching the end, some more code, and the beginning and inside of another comment. The simple m/\/\*.*\*\//s regex will match all of "/* comment 1 */ some = code; /* comment 2 */". You tell * to match as little as possible instead of as much as possible by adding a ?, so it becomes m/\/\*.*?\*\//s.

In reply to Re: removing C style comments from text files by ysth
in thread removing C style comments from text files by ctp

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