#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $infile = 'some_logfile'; my $outfile = 'new_logfile'; my $datematch = qr(2005-5-3); # or whatever open IN, "<", $infile or die "Cannot open $infile:$!\n"; open OUT, ">", $outfile or die "Cannot open $outfile:$!\n"; while () { next if !/$datematch/; print OUT $_; } close IN; close OUT;