If you want to avoid loading the entire file into memory, 
my @history;
while (<>) {
    print @history if /pattern/;
    push @history, $_;
    shift @history if @history > 3;
}

[download]

No direction was given for handling overlapping matches.

In reply to Re: How can I print three lines before pattern match? by ikegami
in thread How can I print three lines before pattern match? by neurotoxx

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