A rather strange looking solution, but with an approach that can be extended to many such situations: (and no I don't think this is the "best" solution). 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;


my $line;

while ( defined ($line = <DATA>))
{
   if ($line =~ /^name/)
   {
      $line = process_record ($line); 
      redo if defined $line;          # another name line
   }  
}

sub process_record
{
   my $line = shift;
   
  (my $name) = $line =~ /^name\s+(\w+)/;
   my %devices;
   
   while (defined ($line = <DATA>) and $line !~ /^name/)
   {
      if ( (my $device) = $line =~ /^device\s+(\w+\s+\w+)/)
      {
         $device =~ s/(\w+)\s+(\w+)/$1 $2/;
         $devices{$device}=1;
      }
   }
   
   print "$name:\n";
   print "   device $_\n" foreach keys %devices;
   
   return $line;
}

=PRINTS:
Brian:
   device ipad 2001
Andrew:
   device ipad 2009
ryan:
   device ipad 2005
   device cell 2009
=cut


__DATA__
socks  something
name    Brian
shirt  yellow
socks   black
device ipad  2001
device ipad  2001
device ipad   2001
tag   no
tag    0   
name    Andrew
shirt  orange
socks   black
device ipad 2009
tag   no
tag    0
name    ryan
shirt  blue
socks   black
device ipad  2005
device cell   2009
tag   yes
tag    1

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In reply to Re: perl parsing by Marshall
in thread perl parsing by cbtshare

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