O.K. this is how I solved it, it seems to work pretty well. Tnx to all for their help! 
opendir (ID, "$dir");
        @dirlist = readdir(ID);
closedir(ID);

foreach $inode (@dirlist) {
        $i++;
        print "Files processed: $i\n";
        next if $inode =~ /^\./;
        my $sfile = $dir . $inode;

        open (IF, "<$sfile");
                @fcont = (<IF>);
        close (IF);

        open (OF, ">$sfile");
        foreach $line (@fcont) {
                if ($line =~ /themark/) {
                        print "starter string found\n";
                        $flag = 1;
                        next;
                }
                if ($flag == 1) {
                        if  (!($line =~ /\w+/)) {
                                $flag = 0;
                                next;
                        }
                        else {
                                print OF $line;
                        }
                }
        }
    close (OF);
}

[download]

In reply to Re: Until there's nothing but spaces? by Anonymous Monk
in thread Until there's nothing but spaces? by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.