Actually, I think that a pure perl solution is both the right and probably fastest solution to this.

The problem with the XS implementations is that they are trying to create exact duplicates of the original structures, including any attached magic. Their problem with shared structures is that they were implemented before the shared magic was, and they've not been updated to handle it.

But for your purpose, you need to explicitly remove that shared magic, which the pure perl cloning does. But as it doesn't have to try and replicate that magic and all the structures and possibilities associated with it, it will likely be faster than an XS implementation that did.

Which given that you don't want it, is a win-win.