First and foremost, I think you should add the $file to the error message. Then, when you get an error, you can go and double-check the file manually to verify that you have 'read' access to it.

Second, and just as important, you should return from the subroutine when there's an error. As it is, you carp... but then you execute the rest of the sub anyway.

As written, you're only searching for matches in the first line of each file encountered. If that's not what you want, you might try simply undefining $/ locally in the sub.

Here's how I'd probably modify your code:

sub search {
    my $file = $File::Find::name;
    unless ( open FILE, "< $file" ) {
        carp "Error opening $file for reading - $!\n";
        return;
    }
    local $/; # sluurp (if appropriate)
    my $line = <FILE>;
    close FILE;
    print "$text - $file"
        if $line =~ /$text/;
}
[download]

#!c:\perl\bin\perl.exe -w

use strict;
use File::Find;
use Carp;

#variables
my ($directory,$file,$text);

print "Enter search text: ";
    $text = <STDIN>;
      chomp $text;

$directory = 'c:\my_directory';
find (\&search,$directory);

sub search {
    my $file = $File::Find::name;
    if (-r $file && -f $file) {
      open (FILE, "$file") or carp "Guess what, it didn't work!\n$!";
      my $line = <FILE>;
      close FILE;
      print "$text - $file"
      if $line =~ /$text/;
    }

}
[download]

All:
With all of the help given to me here(and some one-on-one tutoring) I was able to work out most of my issues! Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is my most recent attempt..getting there

#!c:\perl\bin\perl.exe -w

use strict;
use File::Find;


#variables
my ($directory,$file,$text);

print "Enter search text: ";
    $text = <STDIN>;
      chomp $text;

$directory = 'c:\my_directory';
find (\&search,$directory);

sub search {
    my $file = $File::Find::name;
    if (-r $file && -f $file) {
    open (FILE, "$file") or die "Guess what, it didn't work! $!\n";
    while (my $line = <FILE>) {
    print "$text - $file\n"
    if $line =~ /$text/;
    }    
}
close FILE;
}
[download]

Permission denied at C:/Perl/lib/File/Find.pm line 450

Line 450 in Version 1.04 of Find.pm is blank.

The next runnable line reads:
if ( (-e $fn) || (-l $fn) ) {
Which may indicate that you have permission problems on the Directories/Files you are trying to find (Or there is a bug in the Find.pm module).

Can you tell us what version of File::Find you are using?

"When you are faced with a dilemma, might as well make dilemmanade. "

$directory = 'c:\\my_directory';
# or $directory = 'c:/my_directory';
[download]

Are you sure? It seemed to work for me:

C:\>perl
my $x = 'c:\my_dir';
print "'$x'\n";
^Z
'c:\my_dir'

C:\>perl -v

This is perl, v5.8.0 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
[download]

jdporter
The 6th Rule of Perl Club is -- There is no Rule #6.

Roger, that should work fine because witandhumor is using apostrophes (single ticks). These are all the same thing on Win32:

$directory = 'c:\my_directory';
$directory = 'c:/my_directory';
$directory = "c:\\my_directory";
$directory = "c:/my_directory";
[download]

Basically, if you're going to need to expand any variables, you need to use quotes (double ticks), but for literals it's easier to use apostrophes.