Just to add a small diagnosis from symptoms without looking at the source code, the problem seems to be * specific, as fixed-width REs work (at least with 5.6.1), like :

print $1 if 'abcfoobc' =~ /(.*)foo\1/; # works
print $1 if 'abcfoobc' =~ /(.*).{3}\1/; # does work, $1 empty
print $1 if 'abcfoobc' =~ /(.+)foo\1/; # works as well
[download]

Update: Thanks to chipmunk, I figured out that I was dumb. The following RE also matches :

print $1 if 'abcfoobc' =~ /(.*)\w*\1/; # does work
[download]

perl -MHTTP::Daemon -MHTTP::Response -MLWP::Simple -e ' ;    # The  
$d = new HTTP::Daemon and fork and getprint $d->url and exit;#spider
($c = $d->accept())->get_request(); $c->send_response( new   #in the
HTTP::Response(200,$_,$_,qq(Just another Perl hacker\n))); ' #  web 
[download]

Yes. From the source (regcomp.c:1851):

else if (!sawopen && (OP(first) == STAR &&
    PL_regkind[(U8)OP(NEXTOPER(first))] == REG_ANY) &&
    !(r->reganch & ROPT_ANCH) )
{   
    /* turn .* into ^.* with an implied $*=1 */
    /* ... */
}
[download]

So you can see it is only for regexes starting with .* -- if you look a few lines up, you see:

/* Skip introductions and multiplicators >= 1. */
while ((OP(first) == OPEN && (sawopen = 1)) ||
    /* ... */
) { /* ... */ }
[download]

So it's ignoring the fact that the .* might actually be inside parens.

My patch consisted of the text "!sawparen &&" in the code block up top. Big patch, I know.

_____________________________________________________
Jeff[japhy]Pinyan: Perl, regex, and perl hacker.
s++=END;++y(;-P)}y js++=;shajsj<++y(p-q)}?print:??;