>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $s    = 'a-b c*d';
 my $qm_s = quotemeta $s;
 print qq{raw: '$s'  quotemeta-ed: '$qm_s'};
 ;;
 printf qq{%s equal \n}, $qm_s eq  $qm_s  ? '' : 'NOT ';
 printf qq{%s match \n}, $qm_s =~ /$qm_s/ ? '' : 'NO ';
"
raw: 'a-b c*d'  quotemeta-ed: 'a\-b\ c\*d'
 equal
NO  match