#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use autodie; my ($user_file, $changed_file) = qw{test.txt test.txt.mod}; open my $in_fh, '<', $user_file; open my $out_fh, '>', $changed_file; print "Which user? "; my $user = ; chomp $user; print $out_fh grep !/^$user,/, <$in_fh>;