#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my @saves;   # we will save our stuff in here
my @ok_posters = qw ( Administrator Sam );
# generate a regex to match our approved posters
my $ok_regex = join "|", @ok_posters;
my $ok_regex = qr/(?:$ok_regex)/;

{
    # use local to localise the change to the input record
    # separator to this block only, saves nasty suprises
    local $/ ="_________________________________________________________\n";
    # read in data from file handle one record at a time
    # each record is stored in the magical $_ var
    while (<DATA>) {
         # add data to our array if it matches
         # the required criteria
         push @saves, $_ if /^From\s+$ok_regex/;
    }
}

print @saves;

# this is how you read from the file message.txt instead of <DATA>
#{
#    local $/ ="_________________________________________________________\n";
#    open (FILE, "<message.txt") or die "Unable to open file for reading, Perl says: $!\n";
#    while (<FILE>) {
#         push @saves, $_ if /^From\s+$ok_regex/;
#    }
#    close FILE;
#}

# uncomment this to save the results
# save("c:/mysaves.txt", @saves);

sub save {
    my $file = shift @_;
    my @stuff = @_;
    open (FILE, ">$file") or die "Unable to open file for writing, Perl says: $!\n";
    print FILE @stuff;
    close FILE
}

__DATA__
From Sam (Wed Jul 11 18:12:08 2001):

This space intentionally filled.
_________________________________________________________
From Administrator (Wed Jul 10 01:05:55):

Message
_________________________________________________________
From Sam (Wed Jul 11 18:12:08 2001):

This space intentionally filled.
_________________________________________________________
From Blah Blah (Wed Jul 10 01:05:55):

Message
_________________________________________________________
From Sam (Wed Jul 11 18:12:08 2001):

This space intentionally filled.
_________________________________________________________
From Blah Blah (Wed Jul 10 01:05:55):

Message
_________________________________________________________