opendir (ID, "$dir");
        @dirlist = readdir(ID);
closedir(ID);

foreach $inode (@dirlist) {
        $i++;
        print "Files processed: $i\n";
        next if $inode =~ /^\./;
        my $sfile = $dir . $inode;

        open (IF, "<$sfile");
                @fcont = (<IF>);
        close (IF);

        open (OF, ">$sfile");
        foreach $line (@fcont) {
                if ($line =~ /themark/) {
                        print "starter string found\n";
                        $flag = 1;
                        next;
                }
                if ($flag == 1) {
                        if  (!($line =~ /\w+/)) {
                                $flag = 0;
                                next;
                        }
                        else {
                                print OF $line;
                        }
                }
        }
    close (OF);
}