Given a string that looks suspiciously like a path name: 

  '/a/b/c/d/e/abc00000'

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yet is not a path name, I am trying to extract the abc000000 identifier from the end. My regex doesn't work, and while I know how to write a better one that works, I don't know specifically why this one does not: 
  my $s = '/a/b/c/d/e/abc00000';
  my ($id) = $s =~ m{/(.+?\d+)$};
  print $id, "\n";

  __OUTPUT__
  a/b/c/d/e/abc00000

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I can fix it easily by using: 
  my ($id) = $s =~ m{/([^/]+\d+)$};

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Which I understand. It's just that I don't understand why the first version is greedy.

In reply to Why is this regex greedy? by pbeckingham

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