c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le "for ('filesystem kbytes used avail capacity mounted on', '/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4 12209400 5496486 6712914 46% /home', ) { printf qq{'%s' -> '%s' \n}, $_, parse_capacity($_); } ;; sub parse_capacity { my ($df_output) = @_; return $df_output =~ m[(\d+)%\s+/home$] ? $1 : 'Match Error'; } " 'filesystem kbytes used avail capacity mounted on' -> 'Match Error' '/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4 12209400 5496486 6712914 46% /home' -> '46' #### c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le "use Data::Dump qw(dd); ;; for ('filesystem kbytes used avail capacity mounted on', '/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4 12209400 5496486 6712914 46% /home', ) { dd $_, parse_all($_); } ;; sub parse_all { my ($df_output) = @_; ;; my $match = my ($fsys, $kb, $used, $avail, $cap, $mtd) = $df_output =~ m{ \A (.+) \s+ (\d+) \s+ (\d+) \s+ (\d+) \s+ (\d+)% \s+ (.+) \z }xms; ;; return { error => 'Match Error' } unless $match; ;; return { fsys => $fsys, kb => $kb, used => $used, avail => $avail, cap => $cap, mounted_on => $mtd, }; } " ( "filesystem kbytes used avail capacity mounted on", { error => "Match Error" }, ) ( "/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4 12209400 5496486 6712914 46% /home", { avail => 6712914, cap => 46, fsys => "/dev/dsk/c0b0t0d0s4", kb => 12209400, mounted_on => "/home", used => 5496486, }, )