if ($do eq 'delete') {
    foreach my $num ( @del_links ) {
        splice (@strmeta, $num, 1);
    }
}

[...]

# Rewrite metadata/$file
open (META, ">metadata/$file");
foreach my $rec ( @strmeta ) {
    my $summary = pop @{$rec};
    my $ids = join (/,/, @{$rec});
    print META "$ids\n$summary\n\n";
}
close META;