I think I will give that module a try thanks. I did try changing the subroutine for reading the messages file to the following, but it doesn't find any differences, does anybody know why? Is there a problem in the logic?

sub msg_got_record {
    my $log_record = $_[ARG0];
    print  " $log_record\n";
    push (@array_curr, "$log_record\n");

    if (@array_prev){
    %array_curr = map {$_, 1} @array_curr;
    @difference = grep {!$array_curr {$_}} @array_prev;

    print "this is a difference  @difference\n"
    }
    else {print OUTPUT "@array_curr"; print "this is else - debug @arr
+ay_curr";}
    @array_prev = @array_curr;
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