#!/usr/bin/perl -w my $dir="/home/lcollins"; open MISS, "$dir/miss" or die "can't open $!"; %clocks=( "start"=>"000", "10.1.0.15"=>"0", "10.20.20.13"=>"1FL Sadlier", "10.20.11.15"=>"Convent", "10.20.44.15"=>"1 Cooke", "10.20.44.16"=>"2 Cooke", "10.20.46.36"=>"6 Cooke", "10.20.46.37"=>"4 Cooke", "10.20.46.38"=>"5 Cooke", "10.3.0.15"=>"Beacon", "10.3.0.16"=>"Beacon", "10.4.0.15"=>"9G", "10.6.0.15"=>"Comm Diss", "END"=>"000" ); my $miss=; #chomp $miss; #print "Before loop $miss\n"; foreach (){ chomp; #print "in loop $_ \n"; if (exists $clocks{$_}){ print "$_ is down\n"; } close MISS; }