It looks like the error isn't on line 4 of your code, but compilers can sometimes get a bit confused about line numbers.

I'm willing to bet that there's something wrong a bit higher up in your program. Can you show us the first dozen or so lines.

Perl Training in the UK <http://www.iterative-software.com>

#!/home/freetool/bin/perl5

open(CLI,"datablitz_dump") or die "datablitz_dump not found\n";

$iline = 0;

while(<CLI>)
  {
  if (/^Dn:/)
    {
    $iline++;
    #   ($dn1)= $_ =~ /^Dn: \w+ (\w+ = \d+)/;
    $trav=$_;
    $nbwd = ($trav =~ s/(\w+\s+=\s+\d+)//g);
    $trav=$_;
    $trav=~ s/Dn: //;
    $walknbwd[$iline][0] = $nbwd;
    for ($i=1;$i<=$nbwd;$i++)
      {
#      ($bid,$dns[$i-1]) = ($trav =~ /(\w+\s+(\w+\s+=\s+\d+),*\s*){$i}
+/);
      ($bid1,$bid2,$walkdns[$iline][$i-1],$walkdnval[$iline][$i-1]) = 
+($trav =~ /(\w+\s+((\w+)\s+=\s+(\d+)),*\s*){$i}/);
      }
[download]

perlprog[3]: syntax error at line 3: '(' unexpected
[download]

perlprog[3]: open: not found
perlprog[5]: =: not found
perlprog[7]: syntax error at line 7: ')' unexpected
[download]

There must be something wrong with your shebang line as these are are the errors that you get when a perl script is run by the shell rather than by perl.

Is there actually a file at /home/freetool/bin/perl5? Is it a valid Perl interpreter? What do you get if you type

perl -v /home/freetool/bin/perl5

Also worth checking that there are no spurious invisible characters added to the end of the shebang line.

Oh, and when adding more info like this, you'd usually add it as a follow-up to the original node.

--
<http://www.dave.org.uk>

Perl Training in the UK <http://www.iterative-software.com>

Ok, for starters, you should always post any updates in the original thread.

Secondly, we urged you to use strict and use warnings or the -w switch.

Also, try using the OO-type interface for setting up filehandles and see if this gives you any joy :

my $fh = FileHandle->new(">$file");
[download]


Update: Duh, once again I can't see the woods for the trees. Thanks davorg for pointing this out :)

Update #2 : As a pitiful attempt to save face, I would suggest using which perl command as opposed to perl -v, to ensure your shebang contains the correct path to your perl. (Maybe that will stop the downvotes :P)

Azatoth a.k.a Captain Whiplash

Make Your Die Messages Full of Wisdom!
Get YOUR PerlMonks Stagename here!
Want to speak like a Londoner?

All good advice in general, but none of it will help in this case as the problem is that the script isn't actually being run by perl.

--
<http://www.dave.org.uk>

Perl Training in the UK <http://www.iterative-software.com>

while (<CLI>) {
...
}
[download]

--
tune