in reply to Re^2: How do I backtrack while reading a file line-by-line?
in thread How do I backtrack while reading a file line-by-line?

Oh, heck.

When I wrote the code block in the original post, the

if($newline = /^>/) {
was NOT deliberate. just a typo. In my actual code, it reads:
if($newline =~ /^>/) {