preg_replace("/^\//".. doesnt work?

Im having a weird regexp problem in PHP that I think is correct but it doesnt appear to work. The code is this: $a = "/test/"; preg_replace("/^\//", "", $a); echo $a; I want preg_replace to replace the first '/' in $a with '' so that the echo function echoes "test/", but instead it echoes "/test/" as if preg_replace didnt worked? What am I doing wrong? Im using: PHP Version 4.1.1 Configure Command: './configure' '--with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql' '--with-apxs=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs' '--with-db2--disable-debug' '--disable-static' '--enable-sockets' '--with-yp' '--with-zlib' Regex Library: Bundled library enabled PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) Support: enabled PCRE Library Version: 3.4 22-Aug-2000 Please CC me since Im not a member of this maillinglist. -- * John Ericson john@john.pp.se * ICQ: 7325429 JID: high@jabber.org * web: http://john.pp.se