use warnings; use strict; open (IN, "in.txt") or die; open (OUT, ">out.txt") or die; my $previous_line = ; while (my $current_line = ) { chomp for ($previous_line, $current_line); unless ( ($current_line =~ /^s/) and ($previous_line =~ /^s/) ) { print OUT "$current_line\n"; } } close IN; close OUT;