in reply to Re^4: A NOT in regular expressions (thanks)
in thread A NOT in regular expressions

Cribbing from Mastering Regular Expressions' section on removing C-style quotes ...

qr{
     <%
        [^%]*
        %+
        (
           [^>%]
           [^%]*
           %+
        )*
     >
  }x;

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appears to properly handle every example in this thread, as well as not taking forever on a failed match.

# Test Script
#Uncomment this next line for WAAAYYY too much info
#use re 'debug';


$cleanup=
qr{
     <%
        [^%]*
        %+
        (
           [^>%]
           [^%]*
           %+
        )*
     >
  }x;

@test= ( "stuff <% junk %> more stuff <% more junk %> end",
        "stuff <% junk% %> more stuff",
        "Go <% now %> to <% your %> home <% if %> you <% can %>",
        "<% %%>",
        "<%replace here%%>but not here%>",
        "1 <% xxx%%> 2 <%%> 3 <%>%> 4 <% >% %> 5 <%%%% xxx %%%%> 6 ",
        "<% %%> %>",
        "<%abcdefg>"x500,
        "<% %% %>");

foreach(@test)
{
  print "-"x60,$/,"Test: {$_}$/"; 
  s/$cleanup//g; 
  print "Result: {$_}$/";
}

[download]
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In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom