$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' use constant { ACTION => 0, FAN_A => 1, FAN_B => 2, SEND => 3, FAILURE => 4, }; my $re = qr{ \A \d+ \s+ (? \S+ ) .*? ACTION=< (? [^>]+ ) > \s+ FAN_A=< (? [^>]+ ) > \s+ FAN_B=< (? [^>]+ ) > \s+ SEND=< (? [^>]+ ) > \s+ FAILURE=< (? [^>]+ ) }x; my $log_line = q{19476 2013-04-05,12:10:51.909293 host:internal.machine44.company.net main INFO Running normally with ACTION= FAN_A= FAN_B= SEND= FAILURE=<2>}; $log_line =~ /$re/; my ($date, @info) = @+{qw{date ACTION FAN_A FAN_B SEND FAILURE}}; say $date; say $info[ACTION]; say $info[FAN_A]; say $info[FAN_B]; say $info[SEND]; say $info[FAILURE]; ' 2013-04-05,12:10:51.909293 processing OK OK Sent mail (221 2.0.0 Service closing transmission channel) 2