Absolutely correct!

True. In fact it will also match "09:49blah-blubb-foo-bar-whatnot-yellow" because ".*" in regexps means "any number of any character(s)" and should be used only with extreme caution.

This regexp is - most likely, because lacking any documentation of the problem we are left to guessing - completely screwed from the beginning and perhaps never did what it should do.

Moderator's Comments:

My standard suggestion in this case is: first, learn to analyze your problem clearly and concisely. This will already solve most problems, because they are not lack of knowledge, but lack of ability to bring the facts into a harmonic order. Second, as there are still some problem left for practically everybody, learn to present your problem concisely. Right now we do not know which shell you use (which might influence the best way to solve what you want to do) and we haven't seen yet a sample of your input data. As a last - but nevertheless highly important - point: you can expect hints, pointers, even attempts at solutions from us, but we won't do your work for you! This means, first and foremost, that you should try to understand the offered solutions and maybe modify them to fit your needs. Just sitting there, pasting what we write here into a shell and writing back "doesn't work" once it doesn't solve all your problems immediately isn't going to cut it. There might be others who see it differently but i for myself tend to ignore threads with questions from such people over time. I am sure that i am not alone with this habit. You might think about that.

bakunin