First off consider what the if statement is doing:

open(FIL,">>$myfil") || die "No open for ct tot: $! \n";
if($ct == 1){
        print FIL "\n$ct is down at this time.\n";
}
elsif($ct >= 2){
        print FIL "\n$ct are not available at this time.\n";
}
system("mailx -s 'Mail header' myemail < $myfil");
close(FIL);
[download]

Secondly consider using a pipe instead of writing to a file:

open(MAIL,"|mailx blah) || die "No mail stuff: $! \n";
if($ct == 1){
        print MAIL "\n$ct is down at this time.\n";
}
elsif($ct >= 2){
        print MAIL "\n$ct are not available at this time.\n";
}
close(MAIL);
[download]

Try some common Perl tricks:

# Removed brackets, replaced || with or due to higher presedence and r
+eadability 
# used single quotes on uninterpolated strings.
open MAIL,'|mailx blah' or die "No mail stuff: $!\n";

# Stuck the if statements at the end so it's more natural.
print MAIL "\n$ct is down at this time.\n" if $ct == 1;
print MAIL "\n$ct are not available at this time.\n" if $ct >= 2;

close(MAIL);
[download]

What? more elegant?.....um, it's arguable.

open(MAIL,"|mailx blah) || die "No mail stuff: $! \n";
SWITCH: {
   $ct >= 2   && { print MAIL "\n$ct are not available at this time.\n
+"; last SWITCH };
   $ct == 1   && { print MAIL "\n$ct is down at this time.\n"; last SW
+ITCH };
}
close(MAIL);
[download]

--

Brother Frankus.

¤

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