open(IN,"zcat $myfile|") or die "Cannot open file: $myfile\n"; # This pipes the contents of the file to IN file handle

would something like this work? I am assuming you are on a system where zcat works on .Z and .gz files. For other compressions use corresponding utility and pipe it to Perl.

cheers

SK Update: Here is a snippet. Sorry I couldn't get the file reading and matching in one line :( 


#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
my $myfile = "test.gz";

open(IN,"zcat $myfile|") or die "Cannot open file: $myfile\n";

while (<IN>) {
    print ($_) if /mymatch/;
}

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In reply to Re: Searching within compressed files by sk
in thread Searching within compressed files by Anonymous Monk

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