in reply to Conditional Regex

If I read you right, you want to test that the string starts with either a "/" or "http://localhost.net" (with variations). On that assumption, an alternation (plus some variation) should do it (/x whitespace added for clarity):

m,^(?: / | http:// [^/]* \b localhost\.net ),x

print "Just another Perl ${\(trickster and hacker)},"
The Sidhekin proves Sidhe did it!