NAME¶

Perl::Critic::Policy::RegularExpressions::RequireLineBoundaryMatching - Always use the "/m" modifier with regular expressions.

AFFILIATION¶

This Policy is part of the core Perl::Critic distribution.

DESCRIPTION¶

Folks coming from a "sed" or "awk" background tend to assume that '$' and '^' match the beginning and end of the line, rather than then beginning and end of the string. Adding the '/m' flag to your regex makes it behave as most people expect it should.

    my $match = m{ ^ $pattern $ }x;  #not ok
    my $match = m{ ^ $pattern $ }xm; #ok

CONFIGURATION¶

This Policy is not configurable except for the standard options.

NOTES¶

For common regular expressions like e-mail addresses, phone numbers, dates, etc., have a look at the Regexp::Common module. Also, be cautions about slapping modifier flags onto existing regular expressions, as they can drastically alter their meaning. See <http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=484238> for an interesting discussion on the effects of blindly modifying regular expression flags.

AUTHOR¶

Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer <jeff@imaginative-software.com>

COPYRIGHT¶

Copyright (c) 2005-2011 Imaginative Software Systems. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. The full text of this license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.