my %kill; @kill{'00020123837', '00020123839'} = (); while(<>) { my($serial) = split /,/; print unless exists $kill{$serial}; } #### perl -n -i.orig -e 'BEGIN{@kill{"00020123837","00020123839"}=()} my($serial)=split/,/; print unless exists $kill{$serial}' myhugefile.txt