#! perl -slw use strict; while ( ) { chomp; if ( $_ !~ m[/user/prot/$] ) { print qq{Disallow!! [$_]}; } else { print qq{Allowed. [$_]}; } } __DATA__ /user/prot/ /user/protrusions/ /user/a/ /user/backups #### P:\test>test2 Allowed. [/user/prot/] Disallow!! [/user/protrusions/] Disallow!! [/user/a/] Disallow!! [/user/backups]