Should $prompt = qw(/\>/); be $prompt = '/\>/'; which is one of the defaults anyway?

use warnings; use strict;

and from the docs;

With no argument this method returns the prompt set in the object. With an argument it sets the prompt to $matchop and returns the previous value. The default prompt is '/\$%#> $/' Always use single quotes, instead of double quotes, to construct $matchop (e.g. '/bash\$ $/'). If you're constructing a DOS like file path, you'll need to use four backslashes to represent one (e.g. '/c:\\\\users\\\\bill>$/i'). Of course don't forget about regexp metacharacters like ., [, or $. You'll only need a single backslash to quote them. The anchor metacharacters ^ and $ refer to positions in the input buffer.