use strict; use warnings; use 5.020; my %new_values = ( ONBOOT => 'no', TYPE => 'Wifi', ); my $file_name = "data.txt"; read_file($file_name, \%new_values); sub read_file { my ($fname, $new_values_href) = @_; local $^I = ".bak"; #Enable inplace editing for this block only. local @ARGV = $fname; #Set value for @ARGV for this block only. while (my $line = <>) { my ($name, $val) = split /=/, $line; my $replacement_value = $new_values_href->{$name}; if (defined $replacement_value) { say "$name=$replacement_value"; #Output goes to file } else { print $line; #Output goes to file } } } #Restore $^I and @ARGV to the values they had before the block #### while(my $line = $INFILE) #### { local $^I = ""; ... ... } #### ~/pperl_programs$ cat data.txt DEVICE=eth0 ONBOOT=yes BOOTPROTO=static TYPE=Ethernet IPADDR=10.9.0.200 NETMASK=255.255.0.0 GATEWAY=10.9.1.254 ~/pperl_programs$ perl 1.pl ~/pperl_programs$ cat data.txt DEVICE=eth0 ONBOOT=no BOOTPROTO=static TYPE=Wifi IPADDR=10.9.0.200 NETMASK=255.255.0.0 GATEWAY=10.9.1.254