Match against 'root: email' 01234567890 1) ok! pos = 0. (zw) 2) ok! Found a 'root:' at pos 0 through 4. pos = 5. 3) ok! Found 1 '\s' at pos 5. pos = 6. 4) fail! Found 'email' at pos 6 through 10. Backtrack! 3) ok! Found 0 '\s' at pos 5. pos = 5. (zw) 4) ok! Found something other than 'email' at pos 5. pos = 5. (zwla) (found ' email') 5) fail! Did not find a '\S' at pos 5. Backtrack! Nothing more to try. No match!