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$ perl -E'say "xxx" =~ s/(*MARK:a)^.|(*MARK:c).$|(*MARK:b)./$REGMARK/g +r' abc
$ python -c 'import pcre2; print(pcre2.sub("(*MARK:a)^.|(*MARK:c).$|(* +MARK:b).", "$*MARK", "xxx"))' abc