$ cat file *start*of*junk*data*this is all junk data 01*end*of*junk*data*binary data binary data binary data *start*of*junk*data*this is all junk data 02*end*of*junk*data*binary data binary data binary data *start*of*junk*data*this is all junk data 03*end*of*junk*data*binary data binary data binary data *start*of*junk*data*this is all junk data 04*end*of*junk*data*binary data binary data binary data #### #!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $file="file"; open FILE, $file or die $!; while () { if (m{"*end*of*junk*data*".*?}i .. m{"*start*of*junk*data*".*?}) { print; } } close (FILE);