use strict;
my $str = 'https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=regex%20play&type=Repositories&ref=searchresults
https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=regex+play&type=Repositories&ref=searchresults&o=desc&s=updated
';
my $regex = qr/^(https?[^\s?]+\?)
([^\s=]+=[^\s&]+)
(?:\&([^\s=]+=[^\s&]+))?
(?:\&([^\s=]+=[^\s&]+))?
(?:\&([^\s=]+=[^\s&]+))?
/xp;
my $subst = ' \\1\\2&\\3&\\4&\\5&o=desc&s=updated';
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