that they are only guaranteed to be defined after a
+successful match that was executed with the C (preserve) modifier.
+The use of these variables incurs no global performance penalty, unlike
+their punctuation char equivalents, however at the trade-off that you
+have to tell perl when you want to use them.
+X X
Backslashed metacharacters in Perl are alphanumeric, such as C<\b>,
C<\w>, C<\n>. Unlike some other regular expression languages, there
@@ -435,39 +667,48 @@ expressions, and 2) whenever you see one, you should stop and
=over 10
=item C<(?#text)>
+X<(?#)>
A comment. The text is ignored. If the C modifier enables
whitespace formatting, a simple C<#> will suffice. Note that Perl closes
the comment as soon as it sees a C<)>, so there is no way to put a literal
C<)> in the comment.
-=item C<(?imsx-imsx)>
+=item C<(?pimsx-imsx)>
+X<(?)>
-One or more embedded pattern-match modifiers. This is particularly
-useful for dynamic patterns, such as those read in from a configuration
-file, read in as an argument, are specified in a table somewhere,
-etc. Consider the case that some of which want to be case sensitive
-and some do not. The case insensitive ones need to include merely
-C<(?i)> at the front of the pattern. For example:
+One or more embedded pattern-match modifiers, to be turned on (or
+turned off, if preceded by C<->) for the remainder of the pattern or
+the remainder of the enclosing pattern group (if any). This is
+particularly useful for dynamic patterns, such as those read in from a
+configuration file, taken from an argument, or specified in a table
+somewhere. Consider the case where some patterns want to be case
+sensitive and some do not: The case insensitive ones merely need to
+include C<(?i)> at the front of the pattern. For example:
$pattern = "foobar";
- if ( /$pattern/i ) { }
+ if ( /$pattern/i ) { }
# more flexible:
$pattern = "(?i)foobar";
- if ( /$pattern/ ) { }
+ if ( /$pattern/ ) { }
-Letters after a C<-> turn those modifiers off. These modifiers are
-localized inside an enclosing group (if any). For example,
+These modifiers are restored at the end of the enclosing group. For example,
( (?i) blah ) \s+ \1
-will match a repeated (I!) word C in any
-case, assuming C modifier, and no C modifier outside this
-group.
+will match C in any case, some spaces, and an exact (I!)
+repetition of the previous word, assuming the C modifier, and no C
+modifier outside this group.
+
+Note that the C modifier is special in that it can only be enabled,
+not disabled, and that its presence anywhere in a pattern has a global
+effect. Thus C<(?-p)> and C<(?-p:...)> are meaningless and will warn
+when executed under C