use strict; use warnings; my $file1 = q{dddd}; my $file2 = q{eeee}; my @diffs = do{ open my $diffFH, q{-|}, qq{diff $file1 $file2} or die qq{fork: diff $file1 $file2: $!\n}; grep ! m{^[><]}, <$diffFH>; }; print for @diffs;