#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

$_= q{<%def .errors>
missing_name: You must provide your name.
missing_email: You must provide your email address.
</%def>};

my %errors;
my $start =  q{<%def .errors>};
my $end = q{</%def>};

 /$start/ .. /$end/ and %errors = ( $_ =~/ (.+) [:] (.+) [.] /gx );
 
print Dumper \%errors;