You are close, first thing - you have to undefine the input record separator if you wish to slurp up entire blocks of lines, otherwise you will only get data up to the first new line encountered: 
undef $/;
$current = <DATA>;
$start   = '<!---CURCON-->';
$end     = '<!---END CURCON-->';

my ($match) = $current =~ m/$start(.*)$end/s;
print $match;

__DATA__
stuff i don't want
<!---CURCON-->
stuff i do want
<!---END CURCON-->
more stuff i don't want

[download]
You are correcly using the 's' modifier for your regex, but instead of using s///, use m// and capture $1 in another variable. The trick is, you have to catch $1 in array context: 
my ($match) = $current =~ m/$start(.*)$end/s; # note the parens around
+ $match

[download]
else $match will be equal to the number of matches found.

Now $match will contain a newline at the beginning as well as one at the end: 

$match =~ tr/\n//d;
# or
$match =~ s/\n//g;

[download]
Jeff 

R-R-R--R-R-R--R-R-R--R-R-R--R-R-R--
L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--

In reply to (jeffa) Re: regex in html by jeffa
in thread regex in html by voyager

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