You can avoid the nested loop by capturing the repeated elements as a single match and then splitting it: 

my @match;
while( <DATA> ) {
    m[^foo ((?:m \d+ )+)] and @match = split '(?<=\d) (?=m)', $1;
    print "@match";
}

[download]

Whether that is in any way 'better' is your call.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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In reply to Re: Arbitrary number of captures in a regular expression by BrowserUk
in thread Arbitrary number of captures in a regular expression by grinder

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