Set the input record separator to be equal to one of the tags, and read the file in a bit at a time that way. 

{ local $/ = "<tag1>";
  while ( my $paragraph = <FILE> ) {
      $paragraph =~ s/<tag1>/\n/g;
      $paragraph =~ s/<tag2>/\t/g;
      print OUTFILE $paragraph;
  }
}

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Dave

In reply to Re: search/replace very large file w/o linebreaks by davido
in thread search/replace very large file w/o linebreaks by Anonymous Monk

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