#!/usr/bin/perl -i #first arg is the item_number, second the text-file with replacement #dbase file on STDIN, edited file on STDOUT my $item_number = $ARGV[0]; open IN, $ARGV[1] or die "Could not open $ARGV[1]: $!"; my $replacement; { local $/ = undef; $replacement = ; } { local $/ = '::'; while( <> ) { $_ = $replacement if $. == $item_number; print; print '::' if not eof; } }