my %translations;
my %scrubbed;
while ($file =~ /^ \s+ description \s (\w\w\w\w(-\w+-\w+)) ;/xmg) {
   my $real_dev = $1;
   my $name     = $2;

   if (!$translation{$real_dev}) {
      # Make sure not to duplicate anything in %scrubbed.
      my $scrubbed_dev = ...;

      ++$scrubbed{$scrubbed_dev};
      $translation{$real_dev} = $scrubbed_dev;
   }
}

my $pat = join '|', map quotemeta, keys %translations;
my $re = qr/$pat/;

$file =~ s/($re)/$translations{$1}/g;