ggry
ypgr
rypp
pryg

##</code><code>##

use strict;
use warnings;

# cube strings are the colors for the left, front, right, back, top
# and bottom faces, respectively
my @cubes = ( 'pgpygr', 'rprrgy', 'ppryyg', 'rrygpy' );
my ( $num_solutions, @opts );

foreach my $cube ( @cubes )
{
    push( @opts, get_all_opts( $cube ) );
}

foreach my $cube0str ( @{ $opts[0] } )
{
    foreach my $cube1str ( @{ $opts[1] } )
    {
        next if has_duplicate_faces( $cube0str, $cube1str );

        foreach my $cube2str ( @{ $opts[2] } )
        {
            next if has_duplicate_faces( $cube0str, $cube2str );
            next if has_duplicate_faces( $cube1str, $cube2str );

            foreach my $cube3str ( @{ $opts[3] } )
            {
                next if has_duplicate_faces( $cube0str, $cube3str );
                next if has_duplicate_faces( $cube1str, $cube3str );
                next if has_duplicate_faces( $cube2str, $cube3str );

                # we have a winner
                print "**********\n";
                print join( "\n", $cube0str, $cube1str,
                                  $cube2str, $cube3str ), "\n";

                $num_solutions++;
            }
        }
    }
}

printf "\n\nFound $num_solutions %s (%d unique %s),\n",
      $num_solutions == 1 ? 'solution' : 'solutions',
      $num_solutions / 8,
      $num_solutions / 8 == 1 ? 'solution' : 'solutions';
print "but by permuting the block order this total can be ",
      "increased by a factor of 24\n";

sub get_all_opts
{
    my ( $cubestr ) = @_;

    my @opts;

    # generate all 8 options for the rings around the
    # X, Y, and Z axes of the cube
    my @faces = split( //, $cubestr );
    push( @opts, permute_ring( @faces[ 0,1,2,3 ] ) );
    push( @opts, permute_ring( @faces[ 4,1,5,3 ] ) );
    push( @opts, permute_ring( @faces[ 0,4,2,5 ] ) );

    return( \@opts );
}

sub permute_ring
{
    my ( @faces ) = @_;

    # rotate and reverse the 4 faces
    my @opts;
    for ( 1 .. 4 )
    {
        push( @opts, join( '', @faces ) );
        push( @opts, scalar reverse join( '', @faces ) );
        push( @faces, shift( @faces ) );
    }

    return( @opts );
}

sub has_duplicate_faces
{
    my ( $cube1, $cube2 ) = @_;

    for( 0 .. 3 )
    {
        if( substr( $cube1, $_, 1 ) eq substr( $cube2, $_, 1 ) )
        {
            return 1;
        }
    }

    return 0;
}