In addition to what others have pointed out, another thing to notice about this code is that when the pattern doesn't match (i.e, the string "\nend\n" never occurs within $pages[$PG]), then $pages[$PG] will be set to undef whatever the previous value of $1 was. This may or may not be is probably not what you want. , but I point it out just in case it's not.

If you want to leave $pages[$PG] alone if the pattern doesn't match, use a substitution instead:

$pages[$PG] =~ s/(.*\nend\n).*/$1/s;
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-- Mike

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just,my${.02}