#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; open(FH, "<","./file1.txt") or die "Can't Open File1\n"; open(BH, "<","./file2.txt") or die "Can't Open File2\n"; my $pattern='^LOC_Os0[1-7]g[0-9]*.[0-9]\s'; while(my $line1 = ) { chomp($line1); #print "Line1:$line1\n"; if( $line1=~ /$pattern/) { while(my $line2 = ) { chomp($line2); if($line2 =~ /$pattern/) { if($line1 eq $line2) { print "Matches: ". $line1; } else { print "nothing to print\n"; } } } seek(BH,0,0); } } close(FH); close(BH);