s$\/+.*$$
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hth

my $filename = "9077/00:00///:8087";
my @file = split('/', $filename);

my $newname = $file[0];
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my( $answer ) = ( $data =~ m!^(.+?)/!);
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~Particle *accelerates*

while(<>) {
    s#^([^/]+).*#$1#;
    print;
}
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hope this helps,

Update: even if the s/// works, split() is faster:

while(<>) {
    print((split '/')[0], "\n");
}
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Update: ++Abigail-II. I need to work on my golfing skills... ;)

But that has to capture. You can do without capture:

    s!/.*!!;
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It's smaller code too. ;-)

Abigail

GREAT!!!

Not only smaller code, but smart code too. I knew there had to be an easy way. It is amazing how dumb I feel with out my reference books.

Thanks much,
Simon

my @lines = qw[ 9077/00:00///:8087 9079/00:00/////386/_];
my @erg;
foreach (@lines){
 s/([^\/]*)//;
 push @erg, $1;
}
# erg contains all segments you wanted
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update: damn, whenever I wrote and tested my examples, there are a bunch of so much cooler solutions....way to go tomte, way to go...:-)

update_ii: s/$1 @erg/@erg, $1/