my $pdfs = get_pdfs();
pp $pdfs;
# pp sample from data in text file
{

  "testa.pdf" => 0,
  "testb.pdf" => 0,
}


...
for my $file ($rule->in(@search_dirs)){
    
  my ($filename, $path) = fileparse($file);

  if (exists $pdfs->{$filename}){
      
    my $pages = get_pagecount($file);
    print " $filename,$pages,$path\n"; # print to file
    ++$count;
    
  }else { print " File $filename not found in $path\n";}
  
};
..