How about this? 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $file_contents;
while( <DATA> ){
  next unless ( /^--/ || /^$/ );
  $file_contents .= $_;
}
print $file_contents;

__DATA__
--keep me
delete me

-- don't not throw this one out.
-- delete every line that does NOT begin with two dashes...
-- is the same as keep every line that begins with two dashes

[download]
--HTH 
s!!password!;y?sordid?binger?;
y.paw.mrk.;;print chr 0x5b ;;;
print;print chr(0x5b+0x2);;;;;

[download]

In reply to Re: simple (in theory) regexp question by mrbbking
in thread simple (in theory) regexp question 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.