regexp for "anything except the combination .} "

["Russell L. Harris" <rlharris@oplink.net>]

I am trying to write a regular expression which searches for the
following string:

    \footnote{xxxxx.}

where xxxx is any character, including newline.  I wish to capture the
entire string in a match variable.  Thus far, I have
written:

    /(\\footnote(.*([^\.][^}]))/s

in which I intended the expression:

    ([^\.][^}])

to signify "anything other than the combination .} ".  But it appears
that the expression  .*  with the modifier "s" does not stop until it
reaches the end of the input file.  

RLH