#!/usr/bin/perl -w use Parse::RecDescent; #$RD_TRACE=1; my $parser = Parse::RecDescent->new(<<'EOGRAMMAR'); file: <skip:''> item(s) item: directive | text directive: '<%' <skip:'\\s*'> command arg(s?) m|/?%>| { $return = bless \%item, 'directive' } command: m|/?[a-z]\w*|i arg: argname '=' string { $return = \%item } | string { $return = \%item } | data { $return = \%item } argname: /[a-z]\w*/i string: '"' /[^\\"]*(\\.[^\\"]*)*/ '"' { $return = $item[2] } data: m|((?!/?%>)\S)+| text: /((?!<%).)+/s { $return = bless \$item[1], 'text' } EOGRAMMAR my $data = join '', <DATA>; my $info = $parser->file($data); use Data::Dumper; print Data::Dumper->Dump($info); __DATA__ <% If expr %> the if worked <% Else %> it didn't work <% /If %> > <% Include file="foo.txt" /%> > <% Run Function="myFunc" Attr="x" ...%> <% Arg Name="row" %> <TR><TD>Name</TD><TD>{name}</TD></TR> <% /Arg %> <% /Run %>