I have a program that does some simple regex checking to untaint some user input prior to storing it in a database. I extracted the offending code into a test program:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -T
use strict;
use warnings;

my ( $id, $port, $description );

while(<>) {
   chomp;

   # Ignore comments.
   next if /^#/;

   # Do very rudimentary syntax checking on the ID and port fields
   ( $id, $port, $description ) = 
       m#^\s*(\w+-\w+)\s+(\w+/\d+/\d+)\s+(.*)$#;

   # Here in my real program I do some database stuff.
   print "ID: $id, Port: $port, Description: $description\n";
}
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When I run the code above it works. When I paste the exact RE assignment into my actual program (it appears in two places in the real program) it fails, even though every statement before and since is syntactically correct (obviously I am missing something). It worked a few hours ago, then all of a sudden it stopped.

syntax error at ./vipatch.cgi line 237, near "( $id, $port, $descripti
+on ) = m#^\s*(\w+-\"
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There is no previous '(' to match a ')' on line 237
237:         ( $id, $port, $description ) = m#^\s*(\w+-\w+)\s+(\w+/\d 
+...
                                                          ^

There is no previous '(' to match a ')' on line 237
237: ... n ) = m#^\s*(\w+-\w+)\s+(\w+/\d+/\d+)\s+(.*)$#;
                                             ^

268:         ( $id, $port, $description ) = m#^\s*(\w+-\w+)\s+(\w+/\d 
+...
                    ^
found Scalar where operator expected

There is no previous '(' to match a ')' on line 268
268:         ( $id, $port, $description ) = m#^\s*(\w+-\w+)\s+(\w+/\d 
+...
                                        ^
398:    The logfile vipatch.cgi.LOG may contain useful information
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Where have I gone wrong here?

Update: I tried YAPE::Regex::Explain on the regex in question and it parsed it properly, no problem.

Solution: The regex wasn't the problem and there weren't any missing semicolons; there was, however, a missing $ on an object call half a page above the regex.