D:\tmp>perl -E"say '.' x rand(70) . '# test comment' for 1..3" ....................# test comment ...................................# test comment .......................# test comment D:\tmp>perl -E"say '.' x rand(70) . '# test comment' for 1..20" |perl -lpe " /(.*?)(#.*)/ and $_ = sprintf qq{%-68s %s},$1,$2" ..................... # test comment .............................................................. # test comment ..................................................................... # test comment .................................... # test comment .......................................................... # test comment ............................................... # test comment ............................................................ # test comment ............. # test comment ........................... # test comment ............... # test comment .............................. # test comment .................................... # test comment ................................................... # test comment ................................. # test comment ........................................................... # test comment .......... # test comment ....................................................... # test comment ................................................................. # test comment .......................................... # test comment ................................................................ # test comment