sub my_grep { my ($filename, $re) = @_; open my $fh, '<', $filename or die "cannot open $filename - $!"; my @matching_lines = grep /$re/, <$fh>; close $fh or die "cannot close $filename - $!"; return @matching_lines; # might need further chomping? } my $group_re = qr{^samplegrp:}; foreach my $grpfile (glob "group/server*.grp") { print "$grpfile: ", my_grep($grpfile, $group_re), "\n"; }