{
    local $/ = "";
    while (<$fh>) {
        # $_ now has exactly 1 section in it
    }
}
[download]

Thanks, tried that by doing the following:

#!/usr/bin/perl

$file = shift;

open(LOG, $file) or die "Couldn't open $file: $!\n";
local $/ = "";
while (<LOG>) {
        print "================BLAH================\n$_\n";
}

close(LOG);
[download]

it didn't quite do what's expected though. $_ doesn't have exactly one section in it. here's what's in it:

================BLAH================
abc1-wl-wlc1.domain.com


================BLAH================
Successful downloads: 0
Failed downloads: 1
Warnings: 0


================BLAH================
Detailed Log Info


================BLAH================
General Expect Errors: 1
Text Dump Failure: 1
Binary Transfer Successful: 1
Attempts to get Text Dump: 1
Attempts to use TFTP: 1
Attempted binary transfers: 1


================BLAH================
Textual log of the file transfer:
Processing abc1-wl-wlc1.domain.com Performing [/usr/bin/ssh -2 -a -o "
+StrictHostKeyChecking no" abc1-wl-wlc1.domain.com] Exception: 3:Child
+ PID 20854 exited with status 256 at /usr/SD/perl-5.6.1/lib/site_perl
/EMAN/Config/DeviceConfig/WLC.pm line 288, line 62. ExpectLog: Sorry, 
+telnet is not allowed on this port!Connection to abc1-wl-wlc1.domain.
+com closed. Performing TFTP using SNMP: DestHost [x.x.x.x] Com
munity [private] agentTransferUploadServerIP [x.x.x.x] agentTransferUp
+loadFilename [x.x.x.x.UCFM.18433] Exception: 3:Child PID 20854 exited
+ with status 256 at /usr/SD/perl-5.6.1/lib/site_perl/
EMAN/Config/DeviceConfig/WLC.pm line 288, line 62. Updating CVS


================BLAH================
abc1-wl-wlc2.domain.com
[download]

vxp,
Well then your real data and your posted data are not the same thing. What I provided you would have worked otherwise. Apparently all of your $ are actually not there in your real data.

At this point, I would use the flip flop operator or my own flag to tell me the start and end of a section. It doesn't make sense to me to use a multi-line regex unless you intend to slurp the entire file into memory (scalability issues) or you intend to create your own sliding buffer window (code complexity issues).

Cheers - L~R

now I tried changing $/ to "domain.com" and it's a little closer. Actually _almost_ there:

#!/usr/bin/perl

$file = shift;

open(LOG, $file) or die "Couldn't open $file: $!\n";
local $/ = "cisco.com\n";
while (<LOG>) {
        print "================BLAH================\n$_\n";
}

close(LOG);
[download]

Resulting output:

abc1-wl-wlc1.domain.com

================BLAH================

Successful downloads: 0
Failed downloads: 1
Warnings: 0

Detailed Log Info

General Expect Errors: 1
Text Dump Failure: 1
Binary Transfer Successful: 1
Attempts to get Text Dump: 1
Attempts to use TFTP: 1
Attempted binary transfers: 1

Textual log of the file transfer:
Processing abc1-wl-wlc1.domain.com Performing [/usr/bin/ssh -2 -a -o "
+StrictHostKeyChecking no" abc1-wl-wlc1.domain.com] Exception: 3:Child
+ PID 20854 exited with status 256 at /usr/SD/perl-5.6.1/lib/site_perl
/EMAN/Config/DeviceConfig/WLC.pm line 288, line 62. ExpectLog: Sorry, 
+telnet is not allowed on this port!Connection to abc1-wl-wlc1.domain.
+com closed. Performing TFTP using SNMP: DestHost [x.x.x.x] Com
munity [private] agentTransferUploadServerIP [x.x.x.x] agentTransferUp
+loadFilename [x.x.x.x.UCFM.18433] Exception: 3:Child PID 20854 exited
+ with status 256 at /usr/SD/perl-5.6.1/lib/site_perl/
EMAN/Config/DeviceConfig/WLC.pm line 288, line 62. Updating CVS

abc1-wl-wlc2.domain.com

================BLAH================

Successful downloads: 0
Failed downloads: 1
Warnings: 0

Detailed Log Info

General Expect Errors: 1
Text Dump Failure: 1
Binary Transfer Successful: 1
Attempts to get Text Dump: 1
Attempts to use TFTP: 1
Attempted binary transfers: 1

Textual log of the file transfer:
Processing abc1-wl-wlc2.cisco.com Performing [/usr/bin/ssh -2 -a -o "S
+trictHostKeyChecking no" abc1-wl-wlc2.domain.com] Exception: 3:Child 
+PID 20855 exited with status 256 at /usr/SD/perl-5.6.1/lib/site_perl
/EMAN/Config/DeviceConfig/WLC.pm line 288, line 58. ExpectLog: Sorry, 
+telnet is not allowed on this port!Connection to abc1-wl-wlc2.domain.
+com closed. Performing TFTP using SNMP: DestHost [x.x.x.x] Com
munity [tasMANia] agentTransferUploadServerIP [x.x.x.x] agentTransferU
+ploadFilename [x.x.x.x.UCFM.18441] Exception: 3:Child PID 20855 exite
+d with status 256 at /usr/SD/perl-5.6.1/lib/site_perl/
EMAN/Config/DeviceConfig/WLC.pm line 288, line 58. Updating CVS
[download]

The correct hostname needs to be in between the blah's - right now BLAH comes right after the correct hostname for the section :/

Maybe you could do a pseudo slurp:

my $slrp = '';
while(<$fh>){
if (/
  ^('domain.com' address bit)$ ## regex to catch lines that match the 
+section start (capturing it too)
/x){
    ## you have found a new section so process the previous one 
    ## provided you have already seen one...
    &process_slrp() if (defined$slrp);
    ## restart the slurp, starting with the new domain.com bit
    ...store $slrp somewhere appropriate...
    ## reset
    $slrp = $1;
    ## start again
  } else {
    ## it isn't the start of a section so stick it into the slurp
    $slrp .= $_;
  }
}
[download]

Although i don't see why you can't slurp the whole file and do a multiline regex?

 m{
    (domain bit.+) ##domain bit and everything until
    Successful downloads:(.*) ## next title, capture everything else u
+ntil..
    Failed downloads:(.*) ## next title, capture everything until...
    etc...
  }mxog
[download]

This way you can directly parse out all the sections, even if they are not defined and stick them in an array to work with afterwards?