ok, maybe something like this, filter every location block 
$rawconfig =~ s{
<location \s+ (\S+?)>
(.+?)
</location>
}{
    ReformulateLocation("$1", "$2");
}gimsex;

print $rawconfig;

sub ReformulateLocation {
    my( $loc, $con ) = @_;
    my @pairs =  $con =~ m{ ^ \s* (\S+) \s+ ([^\r\n]+?) \s* $}gmix;
    dd( { $loc, \@pairs } );
    return "<location $loc> $con </location>"; ## no change
}

__END__
{ "/" => ["MaxConnPerIP", 12, "NoIPLimit", "image/*"] }
{ "/location2" => ["MaxConnPerIP", 0] }
{ "/location3" => ["MaxConnPerIP", 0] }

<IfModule> ## workaround of some kind
<IfModule mod_limitipconn.c>
    <location />
        MaxConnPerIP 12
        NoIPLimit image/*
     </location>
    <location /location2>
        MaxConnPerIP 0
     </location>
    <location /location3>
        MaxConnPerIP 0
     </location>
</IfModule>

[download]
Also perlfaq6 has some tips

In reply to Re^3: Search replace with a block by beech
in thread Search replace with a block by santoshrao99

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