Paul Graham's Devel::Refcount module spotted a leak in blead perl. The test passes on 5.10. This script demonstrates that they are only destroyed in GD: perl -e 'sub Regexp::DESTROY { warn "destroyed" }; { my $val; my $re = qr/(?{ $val })/ } warn "end"; END { warn "glboal" }' On 5.10 it warns from the destructor, then the end of the script, and then the END block. On blead the Regexp::DESTROY warning happens after the END block's.Thread Next