in reply to RegEx help

How about: 
my ($ver) = $str =~ /V([0-9.]+)>>$/;

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UPDATE:
or you could reverse the string and use substr (if the version number will always be 8 chars long, that is): 
my $ver = substr(reverse($str),2,8);

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UPDATE:
From liz: my $ver = substr($str,-9,8);

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom