#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; # true was a confusing name open ORIG, "<", "ORIGINAL" or die "probs: ORIGINAL : $!\n"; open EDIT, "<", "cut_out" or die "probs: cut_out2 : $!\n"; open REST, ">", "REST" or die "probs: REST : $!\n"; while () { chomp; my $j = $_; print "grabbing $j lines to $.out.test\n"; open OUT, ">", "$.out.test" or die "can not open $.out.test : $!\n"; while ($j--){ if (my $line = ) { print OUT $line; } else { die "Ran out of input file before editing complete !\n"; } } close OUT; } close EDIT; while () { print REST; } close ORIG; close REST; # rename ("REST", "COMPARE");