# cat test.cfg newyork 1536000 13 56 california 1536000 67 45 London 456 newyork 1536000 78 87 $ cat spw649958 #!/usr/bin/perl # use strict; use warnings; use Tie::File; my $file = q{test.cfg}; tie my @lines, q{Tie::File}, $file or die qq{tie: $file: $!\n}; foreach my $line ( @lines ) { next unless $line =~ m{^newyork}; $line =~ s{1536000}{7878787878}; } untie @lines or die qq{untie: $file: $!\n}; $ ./spw649958 $ cat test.cfg newyork 7878787878 13 56 california 1536000 67 45 London 456 newyork 7878787878 78 87 $