%perldoc -q greedy

What does it mean that regexes are greedy?  How can I get around it?
  Most people mean that greedy regexes match as much as they can.
  Technically speaking, it's actually the quantifiers ("?", "*", "+",
  "{}") that are greedy rather than the whole pattern; Perl prefers lo
+cal
  greed and immediate gratification to overall greed. To get non-greed
+y
  versions of the same quantifiers, use ("??", "*?", "+?", "{}?").

  An example:

          $s1 = $s2 = "I am very very cold";
          $s1 =~ s/ve.*y //;      # I am cold
          $s2 =~ s/ve.*?y //;     # I am very cold

  Notice how the second substitution stopped matching as soon as it
  encountered "y ". The "*?" quantifier effectively tells the regular
  expression engine to find a match as quickly as possible and pass
  control on to whatever is next in line, like you would if you were
  playing hot potato.

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In reply to Re: Regular expression problem by EdwardG
in thread Regular expression problem by jockel

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