Your question has been answered, but consider this instead:

$url =~ s/\?.*$//;
[download]

Instead of trying to capture everything UP to the question mark, just get rid of the question mark and everything AFTER it.

Also, consider the URI CPAN module:

use URI;

my $uri = URI->new($url);

print $uri->scheme, '://', $uri->host, $uri->path, "\n";
[download]

TIMTOWTDI! ;)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)