use strict;
my $str = 'this is a [link][1]
[1]: http://example.com
and this is a [good website][2] in my opinion
[2]: http://goodwebsite.com
[3]: http://example.com/fsadf.jpg
[![this is a photo][3]][3]
and there is some text hare ..!';
my $regex = qr/^(\[[0-9]*]:)(.*)\r?\n?/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