chromatic is right, you should use the quote() or even better the placeholders. This is just to explain why what you tried didn't work.

The replacement string in a s/// is basicaly just a doublequoted string. In such a string if you want to include a literal backslash you have to escape it:

print "A backslash \\ is here\n";

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In your case you need two literal backslashes so you have to enter four in the replacement.

Second, the list of characters that need to be escaped in a regular expression is even longer than in a doublequoted string. What they both have in common is that you have to type two backslashes if you want to get a single literal backslash. So the line should look like this: 

s/\\/\\\\/g;

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or better 
s{\\}{\\\\}g ;

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(The second version is a bit more readable.)

Jenda
Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
   -- Rick Osborne

Edit by castaway: Closed small tag in signature

In reply to Re: escaping the backslash by Jenda
in thread escaping the backslash by joedoc

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