$tu ="D:\\vroom\\diags\\in\\frameworks\\my_ip\\shock.h"; if ($mes=$tu=~ m/$.h/g) { open FH, $tu or die "cannot open D:\\vroom\\diags\\in\\frameworks\\my_ip\\shock.h :$!\n"; while ( my $line = ) { $line =~ s/\\t/ /g; } close (FH) or die "cannot close D:\\vroom\\diags\\in\\frameworks\\my_ip\\shock.h:$!\n"; } else { print "out of loop\n"; }