#!/usr/bin/perl
my $maxlen = 70;
my $finalbuffer = undef;
print "Check the no of characters in each line \n";
open(FILE,"textfile") or die "Unable to open the textfile \n";

while (<FILE>){
        chomp;
        if ( length($_) > $maxlen ){
                my $line = $_;
                while ( length($line) > $maxlen ){
                        my $smallchunk = substr($line,0,$maxlen-1);
                        $finalbuffer .= qq~$smallchunk\n~;
                        $line = substr($line,$maxlen-1,length($line));
                }       
                $finalbuffer .= qq~$line\n~;    
        }
        else{
                print "Line within range of $maxlen characters \n";
                $finalbuffer .= qq~$_\n~;       
        }       
}
close FILE;

open(TMP,">tmpfile") or die "Unable to open tmpfile for writing $! \n";
print TMP $finalbuffer;
close TMP;