1.3. Perl 5.8

Perl provides a rich set of regular-expression operators, constructs, and features, with more being added in each new release. Perl uses a Traditional NFA match engine. For an explanation of the rules behind an NFA engine, see Section 1.2.

This reference covers Perl Version 5.8. Unicode features were introduced in 5.6, but did not stabilize until 5.8. Most other features work in Versions 5.004 and later.