#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $location ="/newlocation"; my $file_name ='ipconn.conf'; $/ = undef; open (FILE, "< $file_name") or die $!; my $file = ; close FILE; my $value; # check for the block we want if ($file =~ m/\/s){ my $block = $&; if($block =~ s/MaxConnPerIP\s*(.+?)*/MaxConnPerIP 10/g) { print $block; } }