+These special patterns are generally of the form C<(*VERB:ARG)>. Unless
+otherwise stated the ARG argument is optional; in some cases, it is
+forbidden.
+
+Any pattern containing a special backtracking verb that allows an argument
+has the special behaviour that when executed it sets the current packages'
+C<$REGERROR> and C<$REGMARK> variables. When doing so the following
+rules apply:
+
+On failure, the C<$REGERROR> variable will be set to the ARG value of the
+verb pattern, if the verb was involved in the failure of the match. If the
+ARG part of the pattern was omitted, then C<$REGERROR> will be set to the
+name of the last C<(*MARK:NAME)> pattern executed, or to TRUE if there was
+none. Also, the C<$REGMARK> variable will be set to FALSE.
+
+On a successful match, the C<$REGERROR> variable will be set to FALSE, and
+the C<$REGMARK> variable will be set to the name of the last
+C<(*MARK:NAME)> pattern executed. See the explanation for the
+C<(*MARK:NAME)> verb below for more details.
+
+B<NOTE:> C<$REGERROR> and C<$REGMARK> are not magic variables like C<$1>
+and most other regex related variables. They are not local to a scope, nor
+readonly, but instead are volatile package variables similar to C<$AUTOLOAD>.
+Use C<local> to localize changes to them to a specific scope if necessary.
+
+If a pattern does not contain a special backtracking verb that allows an
+argument, then C<$REGERROR> and C<$REGMARK> are not touched at all.
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Verbs that take an argument
+
+=over 4
+
+=item C<(*PRUNE)> C<(*PRUNE:NAME)>
+X<(*PRUNE)> X<(*PRUNE:NAME)>
+
+This zero-width pattern prunes the backtracking tree at the current point
+when backtracked into on failure. Consider the pattern C<A (*PRUNE) B>,
+where A and B are complex patterns. Until the C<(*PRUNE)> verb is reached,
+A may backtrack as necessary to match. Once it is reached, matching
+continues in B, which may also backtrack as necessary; however, should B
+not match, then no further backtracking will take place, and the pattern
+will fail outright at the current starting position.
+
+The following example counts all the possible matching strings in a
+pattern (without actually matching any of them).
+
+ 'aaab' =~ /a+b?(?{print "$&\n"; $count++})(*FAIL)/;
+ print "Count=$count\n";
+
+which produces:
+
+ aaab
+ aaa
+ aa
+ a
+ aab
+ aa
+ a
+ ab
+ a
+ Count=9
+
+If we add a C<(*PRUNE)> before the count like the following
+
+ 'aaab' =~ /a+b?(*PRUNE)(?{print "$&\n"; $count++})(*FAIL)/;
+ print "Count=$count\n";
+
+we prevent backtracking and find the count of the longest matching
+at each matching startpoint like so:
+
+ aaab
+ aab
+ ab
+ Count=3
+
+Any number of C<(*PRUNE)> assertions may be used in a pattern.
+
+See also C<< (?>pattern) >> and possessive quantifiers for other ways to
+control backtracking. In some cases, the use of C<(*PRUNE)> can be
+replaced with a C<< (?>pattern) >> with no functional difference; however,
+C<(*PRUNE)> can be used to handle cases that cannot be expressed using a
+C<< (?>pattern) >> alone.
+
+
+=item C<(*SKIP)> C<(*SKIP:NAME)>
+X<(*SKIP)>
+
+This zero-width pattern is similar to C<(*PRUNE)>, except that on
+failure it also signifies that whatever text that was matched leading up
+to the C<(*SKIP)> pattern being executed cannot be part of I<any> match
+of this pattern. This effectively means that the regex engine "skips" forward
+to this position on failure and tries to match again, (assuming that
+there is sufficient room to match).
+
+The name of the C<(*SKIP:NAME)> pattern has special significance. If a
+C<(*MARK:NAME)> was encountered while matching, then it is that position
+which is used as the "skip point". If no C<(*MARK)> of that name was
+encountered, then the C<(*SKIP)> operator has no effect. When used
+without a name the "skip point" is where the match point was when
+executing the (*SKIP) pattern.
+
+Compare the following to the examples in C<(*PRUNE)>, note the string
+is twice as long:
+
+ 'aaabaaab' =~ /a+b?(*SKIP)(?{print "$&\n"; $count++})(*FAIL)/;
+ print "Count=$count\n";
+
+outputs
+
+ aaab
+ aaab
+ Count=2
+
+Once the 'aaab' at the start of the string has matched, and the C<(*SKIP)>
+executed, the next startpoint will be where the cursor was when the
+C<(*SKIP)> was executed.
+
+As a shortcut C<(*MARK:NAME)> can be written C<(*:NAME)>.
+
+=item C<(*MARK:NAME)> C<(*:NAME)>
+X<(*MARK)> C<(*MARK:NAME)> C<(*:NAME)>
+
+This zero-width pattern can be used to mark the point reached in a string
+when a certain part of the pattern has been successfully matched. This
+mark may be given a name. A later C<(*SKIP)> pattern will then skip
+forward to that point if backtracked into on failure. Any number of
+C<(*MARK)> patterns are allowed, and the NAME portion is optional and may
+be duplicated.
+
+In addition to interacting with the C<(*SKIP)> pattern, C<(*MARK:NAME)>
+can be used to "label" a pattern branch, so that after matching, the
+program can determine which branches of the pattern were involved in the
+match.
+
+When a match is successful, the C<$REGMARK> variable will be set to the
+name of the most recently executed C<(*MARK:NAME)> that was involved
+in the match.
+
+This can be used to determine which branch of a pattern was matched
+without using a seperate capture buffer for each branch, which in turn
+can result in a performance improvement, as perl cannot optimize
+C</(?:(x)|(y)|(z))/> as efficiently as something like
+C</(?:x(*MARK:x)|y(*MARK:y)|z(*MARK:z))/>.
+
+When a match has failed, and unless another verb has been involved in
+failing the match and has provided its own name to use, the C<$REGERROR>
+variable will be set to the name of the most recently executed
+C<(*MARK:NAME)>.
+
+See C<(*SKIP)> for more details.
+
+=item C<(*THEN)> C<(*THEN:NAME)>
+
+This is similar to the "cut group" operator C<::> from Perl6. Like
+C<(*PRUNE)>, this verb always matches, and when backtracked into on
+failure, it causes the regex engine to try the next alternation in the
+innermost enclosing group (capturing or otherwise).
+
+Its name comes from the observation that this operation combined with the
+alternation operator (C<|>) can be used to create what is essentially a
+pattern-based if/then/else block:
+
+ ( COND (*THEN) FOO | COND2 (*THEN) BAR | COND3 (*THEN) BAZ )
+
+Note that if this operator is used and NOT inside of an alternation then
+it acts exactly like the C<(*PRUNE)> operator.
+
+ / A (*PRUNE) B /
+
+is the same as
+
+ / A (*THEN) B /
+
+but
+
+ / ( A (*THEN) B | C (*THEN) D ) /
+
+is not the same as
+
+ / ( A (*PRUNE) B | C (*PRUNE) D ) /
+
+as after matching the A but failing on the B the C<(*THEN)> verb will
+backtrack and try C; but the C<(*PRUNE)> verb will simply fail.
+
+=item C<(*COMMIT)>
+X<(*COMMIT)>
+
+This is the Perl6 "commit pattern" C<< <commit> >> or C<:::>. It's a
+zero-width pattern similar to C<(*SKIP)>, except that when backtracked
+into on failure it causes the match to fail outright. No further attempts
+to find a valid match by advancing the start pointer will occur again.
+For example,
+
+ 'aaabaaab' =~ /a+b?(*COMMIT)(?{print "$&\n"; $count++})(*FAIL)/;
+ print "Count=$count\n";
+
+outputs
+
+ aaab
+ Count=1
+
+In other words, once the C<(*COMMIT)> has been entered, and if the pattern
+does not match, the regex engine will not try any further matching on the
+rest of the string.
+
+=back
+
+=item Verbs without an argument
+
+=over 4
+
+=item C<(*FAIL)> C<(*F)>
+X<(*FAIL)> X<(*F)>
+
+This pattern matches nothing and always fails. It can be used to force the
+engine to backtrack. It is equivalent to C<(?!)>, but easier to read. In
+fact, C<(?!)> gets optimised into C<(*FAIL)> internally.
+
+It is probably useful only when combined with C<(?{})> or C<(??{})>.
+
+=item C<(*ACCEPT)>
+X<(*ACCEPT)>
+
+B<WARNING:> This feature is highly experimental. It is not recommended
+for production code.
+
+This pattern matches nothing and causes the end of successful matching at
+the point at which the C<(*ACCEPT)> pattern was encountered, regardless of
+whether there is actually more to match in the string. When inside of a
+nested pattern, such as recursion or a dynamically generated subbpattern
+via C<(??{})>, only the innermost pattern is ended immediately.
+
+If the C<(*ACCEPT)> is inside of capturing buffers then the buffers are
+marked as ended at the point at which the C<(*ACCEPT)> was encountered.
+For instance:
+
+ 'AB' =~ /(A (A|B(*ACCEPT)|C) D)(E)/x;
+
+will match, and C<$1> will be C<AB> and C<$2> will be C<B>, C<$3> will not
+be set. If another branch in the inner parens were matched, such as in the
+string 'ACDE', then the C<D> and C<E> would have to be matched as well.
+
+=back