text <- "This is some text::stuff. Look, there's some::more. And here::is some more."
m <- gregexpr("[[:alnum:]]+(?=::)", text, perl=TRUE)
unlist(regmatches(text, m))
dGV4dCA8LSAiVGhpcyBpcyBzb21lIHRleHQ6OnN0dWZmLiBMb29rLCB0aGVyZSdzIHNvbWU6Om1vcmUuIEFuZCBoZXJlOjppcyBzb21lIG1vcmUuIgptIDwtIGdyZWdleHByKCJbWzphbG51bTpdXSsoPz06OikiLCB0ZXh0LCBwZXJsPVRSVUUpCnVubGlzdChyZWdtYXRjaGVzKHRleHQsIG0pKQ==