#!/bin/perl -l -pi.bak use strict; use warnings; if (/Friday/) { warn "match on line $.\n"; # warn goes to STDERR } elsif ($. == 2) { # no match but on line 2 $_ .= "Friday"; # add "Friday" (and line ending via -l) warn "added 'Friday' to line $.\n"; # warn doesn't add line ending via -l }