#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use autodie;

my $file = 'pm_1139175_skip_head_and_foot.txt';
my ($headers, $footers) = (2, 3);

open my $fh, '<', $file;

<$fh> for 1 .. $headers;
my $last_head_pos = tell $fh;

1 while <$fh>;
my $last_data_line = $. - $footers;

seek $fh, $last_head_pos, 0;
$. = $headers;

while (<$fh>) {
    last if $. > $last_data_line;
    print;
}

close $fh;

##</code><code>##

$ cat pm_1139175_skip_head_and_foot.txt
head1
head2
data1
data2
data3
data4
foot1
foot2
foot3

##</code><code>##

$ pm_1139175_skip_head_and_foot.pl
data1
data2
data3
data4