use strict;
my $str = '# Re-loading pkgdown while it\'s running causes weird behaviour with # the context cache don\'t
# Needs to handle NA for desc::desc_get()
# Update href of toc anchors , use "-" instead "."
# Keep something$col or here_you::must_stay';
my $regex = qr/(?:\w+::\w+(?:\(\))?|\p{L}+(?:[-'_$]\p{L}+)*)(*SKIP)(*F)|[^\p{L}\s]/mp;
my $subst = '';
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