$ echo -e "Sun 09 30 06 42 36 2007\nTue 10 02 06 01 55 2007\n" | perl -MTime::Local -lane"END{print$t}$F[1]--;$t+=($.*2-3)*timelocal@F[5,4,3,2,1,6]" Can't modify single ref constructor in postdecrement (--) at -e line 1, near "]--" syntax error at -e line 1, near "+=" Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.