In a regex a quantifier determines how many times something may match. There has to be a something however. A simple example is that x* matches any number of x's (including 0). It is the x that is being matched. The * say how many times it is allowed to match.

In your sample the m/ bit introduces a regular expression match. The * is an orphaned quanifier - it has nothing to count. Most likely what you want in that case is m/.* to match any number of anything. However .* at the start of a regex match is generally redundant and can be omitted.