If "?" is the delimiter, then a match-only-once rule applies
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#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use 5.10.0;

while (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    process_path($_);
}

sub process_path {
    my $path = shift;

    if ( $path =~ m{^.*/home/(.*)/\.forward} ) # m[...] or
                                               # m|...| works also
    {
        say "i've got >$1<";
    }
    else {
        say "ups >$path<";
    }
}

=prints
i've got >aaa<
i've got >bbb<
i've got >ccc<
i've got >ddd<
=cut

__DATA__
/home/aaa/.forward
/home/bbb/.forward
/home/ccc/.forward
/home/ddd/.forward
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