#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; chdir('dir1'); open(my $fh, '<', 'list.name') or die("open() failed: $!"); my %all = map { $_ => undef } grep { -d } glob("*"); delete($all{$_}) for ( map { chomp; $_ } <$fh> ); system('rm', '-ir', $_) for (keys(%all)); __END__ format of dir1/list.name: dir1 dir2 dir3 dir4 dirx