Can't get perl regex to be non-greedy
elsif ($line =~ /s(d{2}.d{2}.d{2}.d{2}s[[:alpha:]]*?)/)
{
    print OUTPUT "NT5 ".$1." | | n";
}

$line="     02.04.07.06 Geerite Cu8S5 R 3m, R 3m, or R 32 Trig ";
if ($line =~ /s(d{2}.d{2}.d{2}.d{2}s[[:alpha:]]*?)/) { print "NT5 ".$1." | | n"; }

NT5 02.04.07.06  | |

perl -e '$_ = "02.04.07.06 Geerite Cu8S5 R 3m, R 3m, or R 32 Trig"; print "$1n" if /(dd.dd.dd.dd w+)/'

02.04.07.06 Geerite

/(dd.dd.dd.dd w+)/

$line = '   02.04.07.06 Geerite Cu8S5 R 3m, R 3m, or R 32 Trig';
if ($line =~ /s(d{2}.d{2}.d{2}.d{2}s[[:alpha:]]*)/) {
    print OUTPUT "NT5 ".$1." | | n";
}

NT5 02.04.07.06 Geerite | |

$line =~ /s(d{2}.d{2}.d{2}.d{2}s[[:alpha:]]*)/