use warnings; use strict; print "please enter name of file: "; chomp($ARGV=<>); open (FILE, $ARGV) or die "Can't open '$ARGV': $!"; my $lines++ while(); print "\$lines: $lines"; my $last; my $first = ; while () { $last = $_ } close FILE; if($lines<5){ print "file must have more than 5 lines"; } else{ print "\$first: $first"; print "\$last: $last"; }