use strict;
my $str = '2001:0db8:abcd:0012:0000:0000:0000:0001
2001:0db8:abcd:0012:0000:0000:0000:00a2
2001:0db8:abcd:0012:0000:0000:0000:00ff
a:b:0:c:d:e:f:g
2001:0db8:abcd:0012:0000:0000:0000:0001
:00ff:0000:
0012:0000:0000:0000:0001';
my $regex = qr/(?::|^)((?:0+:){2,}0+)(?=:|$)|(?::|^)(0+)([0-9a-f]+)(?=:|$)|\b0+([0-9a-f]{1,4})\b/ip;
my $subst = '${1:+::}${3}${4}';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html