Check out LMX. It's a reverse XML parser. It parses an XML file in reverse, and it seems like what you are looking for.

AFIAK, there isn't a perl interface. And it requires MacOS. The author says that the next version will be cross-platform, however.

In reply to Re: reading file from the end till some value is found by pc88mxer
in thread reading file from the end till some value is found by Anonymous Monk

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