my @hostFiles = qw/filecheck.pl hostscript.pl awesomeness.txt/; my @output =`ssh $hostname "cd Desktop; ls -a"`; my %comparison; for my $file (@hostFiles) { $comparison{$file} +=1; } for my $file (@output) { $comparison{$file} +=2 } for my $file (sort keys %comparison) { @missing = "Missing file: $file\n" if $comparison{$file} ==1; print "Extra file: $file\n" if $comparison{$file} ==2; }