i have a string, name=../temp/config.xml../temp/set.xml --cfg../runtime/perl --uniq_id=perl; Please not the above string is an eg, only i need a parsed o/p name = ../temp/config.xml ../temp/set.xml --cfg ../runtime/perl --uniq_id=perl; Here when i tried to use the command $line = s/..\// ..\//; (replace ../ with space ../) then i got the o/p as name = ../temp/config.x ../temp (note: .xml has been truncated to .x) your input would be of help