Irb session testing generic regex

gistfile1.rb

ruby-1.8.7-p334 :001 > /<p>.*</p>/
ruby-1.8.7-p334 :002/> /<p>.*<\/p>/
SyntaxError: compile error
(irb):1: unknown regexp option - p
(irb):2: syntax error, unexpected '.'
/<p>.*<\/p>/
     ^
	from (irb):2
ruby-1.8.7-p334 :003 > /<p>.*<\/p>/
 => /<p>.*<\/p>/ 
ruby-1.8.7-p334 :004 > r = /<p>.*<\/p>/
 => /<p>.*<\/p>/ 
ruby-1.8.7-p334 :005 > r
 => /<p>.*<\/p>/ 
ruby-1.8.7-p334 :006 > r.match
ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (0 for 1)
	from (irb):6:in `match'
	from (irb):6
ruby-1.8.7-p334 :007 > texto = '<p>blablabla</p>'
 => "<p>blablabla</p>" 
ruby-1.8.7-p334 :008 > r.match texto
 => #<MatchData "<p>blablabla</p>"> 
ruby-1.8.7-p334 :009 > r = /<p>(.*)<\/p>/
 => /<p>(.*)<\/p>/ 
ruby-1.8.7-p334 :010 > r.match texto
 => #<MatchData "<p>blablabla</p>" 1:"blablabla"> 
ruby-1.8.7-p334 :011 >