can anyone help find out why I can not print to the text file with the new value found?
. . .
open( DATA_OUT, ">/unsecure/test.new" ) or die "$!\n";

My guess is that you don't really want an absolute path there and that the directory /unsecure doesn't exist. Earlier in the code you used a relative path. Try removing the leading slash.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";