use strict;
my $str = '-- START
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS feather_store_dev;
-- END
-- START
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS feather_store_dev.accounts (
id int,
email varchar(25),
bio varchar(18),
password varchar(32),
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
-- END';
my $regex = qr/\-\-\sSTART\n(.+?)\n\-\-\sEND/sp;
my $subst = '\\1';
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