Would it be OK if I up the ante a bit? The tags are really not so well structured. They are things like HOSTNAME, CONTACT, ....

Sure: 

#! perl -slw
use strict;
use Data::Dump qw[ pp ]; $Data::Dump::WIDTH = 50;

my $reTags = join '|', map quotemeta, qw[
    HOSTNAME CONTACT TAG1 TAG2 TAG3 TAG4
];

$reTags = qr[$reTags];

my %hash = do{
    local $/;
    <DATA>
} =~ m[($reTags)=\s+(.+?)(?=$reTags|\Z)]gsm;

pp \%hash;

__DATA__
TAG1= data
TAG2= more data
HOSTNAME= fred
TAG3= even more data that sometimes has = and
runs on to more
than one line
CONTACT= Wiley Coyote
Hiesenberg Road
The Desert
TAG4= still more

[download]

Produces:

c:\test>junk15
{
  CONTACT  => "Wiley Coyote\nHiesenberg Road\nThe Desert\n",
  HOSTNAME => "fred\n",
  TAG1     => "data\n",
  TAG2     => "more data\n",
  TAG3     => "even more data that sometimes has = and\nruns on to mor
+e\nthan one line\n",
  TAG4     => "still more",
}

[download]
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.

In reply to Re^3: problems splitting ugly input data by BrowserUk
in thread problems splitting ugly input data by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.