foreach (@w) {
  print "working with $_... ";
  /^>>/                and do { print "error message\n"; next };
  /^\s*([<>])\s*(\S+)/ and do { print "separated '$1' from '$2'\n"; next };
  /^\s*\|/             and do { print "pipefront\n"; next };
  /\|\s*$/             and do { print "pipeend\n"; next };
  print "\n";
}
__END__
working with >test.txt... separated '>' from 'test.txt'
working with <test.txt... separated '<' from 'test.txt'
working with >>test.txt... error message
working with  | test... pipefront
working with test |... pipeend