That fails on the case where $line starts with a =:

$line = "==one==two==three";
($one,$two,$three,$four)=split (/=+/,$line);
print "$one\n$two\n$three\n$four";
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gives me an undef, 'one', and 'two'.

As a side note, '$line' != '$a' :-)

Afterthought: This would work:

$line = "==one==two==three=four";
($one,$two,$three,$four)=split (/=+/,($line=~/^=*(.*?)$/,$1)[1]); 
print "$one\n$two\n$three\n$four";
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