perl -ne 'undef $/; $\="\n"; (($count = $1) =~ s/.*\Count\s*(\d+).*/\1/ && $pages < $count ? $pages=$1 : 1) while s/(<<[^<]*\/Type\s*\/Pages[^>]*>>)//; print $pages' somefile.pdf #### 23 0 obj << /Type /Pages /Resources 76 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 595 842 ] /Kids [ 24 0 R // and so on ] /Count 11 >> endobj