yeah you could do something like

/.*(?=(^[^=]+=|\Z))/ # not tested, but should be about right
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Or you could use the code... set a flag when you find a propname and unset only except continuation lines when it is set. If you need to look at the prop as one piece just build a parse tree... that usually is the better way to go unless you are working on a huge dataset or a real time stream. And, as you say, you could pop it back together in simpleprop.

Of course.. unless you need them it is often easier to pre-process out the comments.