How to replace $*=1 with an alternative now $* is no longer supported

$* is no longer supported at migrate.pl line 380.

$* = 1;
    $/ = ':';

    $cmd = $SSCMD . " Dir -I- "$proj"";
    $_ = `$cmd`;

    # what this next expression does is to merge wrapped lines like:
    #    $/DeviceAuthority/src/com/eclyptic/networkdevicedomain/deviceinterrogator/excep
    #    tion:
    # into:
    #    $/DeviceAuthority/src/com/eclyptic/networkdevicedomain/deviceinterrogator/exception:
    s/n((w*-*.*w*/*)+:)/$1/g;

    $* = 0;

$cmd = $SSCMD . " get -GTM -W -I-Y -GL"$localdir" -V$version "$file" 2>&1";
            $out = `$cmd`;

            # get rid of stupid VSS warning messages
            $* = 1;
            $out =~ s/n?Project.*rebuilt.//g;
            $out =~ s/n?File.*rebuilt.//g;
            $out =~ s/n.*was moved out of this project.*rebuilt.//g;
            $out =~ s/nContinue anyway.*Y//g;
            $* = 0;

$haystack =~ m/.../sm;

qr/(?ms-ix:$expr)/;

s/n((w*-*.*w*/*)+:)/$1/gsm;

s/n?Project.*rebuilt.//msg