Your first two examples set the quantifier as {1,REG_INFTY} because they were simple enough to allow it (exact matches, no capturing, etc). You cannot explicitly name quantifiers higher than REG_INFTY and now I quote some comments from the source.

The default size for REG_INFTY is I16_MAX, which is the same as SHORT_MAX (see perl.h). Unfortunately I16 isn't necessarily 16 bits (see handy.h). On the Cray C90, sizeof(short)==4 and hence I16_MAX is ((1<<31)-1), while on the Cray T90, sizeof(short)==8 and I16_MAX is ((1<<63)-1). To limit stack growth to reasonable sizes, supply a smaller default. --Andy Dougherty 11 June 1998

Perhaps you can change this default locally?

In reply to Re^2: Is there a hard limit on + in a regex? by diotalevi
in thread Is there a hard limit on + in a regex? by samtregar

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