$ perl -nE '$l++; $i += () = $_ =~ /\bfoo\b/g; say "After line $l: $i"' 1176022.txt After line 1: 1 After line 2: 2 After line 3: 2 After line 4: 4 After line 5: 4 After line 6: 5 After line 7: 5 $