$ perl -E'say "pl" =~ /p.{1,6}/'
1

$ perl -E'say "pl" =~ /p.{2,6}/'


$ perl -Mre=debugcolor -E'say "pl" =~ /p.{1,6}/'
Compiling REx "p.{1,6}"
Final program:
   1: EXACT <p> (3)
   3: CURLY {1,6} (6)
   5:   REG_ANY (0)
   6: END (0)
anchored "p" at 0 (checking anchored) minlen 2 
Guessing start of match in sv for REx "p.{1,6}" against "pl"
Found anchored substr "p" at offset 0...
Guessed: match at offset 0
Matching REx "p.{1,6}" against "pl"
   0 <pl>|  1:EXACT <p>(3)
   1 <pl>|  3:CURLY {1,6}(6)
                                  REG_ANY can match 1 times out of 6...
   2 <pl>|  6:  END(0)
Match successful!
1
Freeing REx: "p.{1,6}"


$ perl -Mre=debugcolor -E'say "pl" =~ /p.{2,6}/'
Compiling REx "p.{2,6}"
Final program:
   1: EXACT <p> (3)
   3: CURLY {2,6} (6)
   5:   REG_ANY (0)
   6: END (0)
anchored "p" at 0 (checking anchored) minlen 3 

Freeing REx: "p.{2,6}"