I have the entire file in one variable. I can get the result you have by leaving the ~m//mg rather than ~m//smg (single line mode.) My problem is that I want $1 to equal the entire element, i.e. 
CALCON(test2)
{
  TYPE(U16)
  FEATURE(DCOM)
  NAM(dcomc_sestmr_timeout)
  LABEL(DCOM Session Timer Timeout)
  MIN(0)
  MAX(65535)
  UNITS(ms)
}

[download]
but $2 to equal "test2". perl seems to be greedy, and gets all the way to the "ms" in brackets if I add the /s to the match, i.e. it is greedy. Does this explain things better? Cheers.

In reply to Re^2: nested reg ex over multiple lines by eg8rds
in thread nested reg ex over multiple lines by eg8rds

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.