Hi
I have taken another approach to what I think you are trying to do. Hopefully you can use this to achieve what you want.
use strict;
use warnings;
my @tmp;
my @keep;
my $first_time = 1;
while (my $a_line = <DATA>) {
chomp $a_line;
push @tmp, $a_line;
if ( $a_line =~ /^\d+\s+\D+/ )
{
if ($first_time)
{
$first_time = 0;
}
else
{
#we have a new host master record
#process the data from the previous host
process_previous(\@tmp);
@keep = (@keep, @tmp);
@tmp =();
}
}
}
process_previous(\@tmp);
@keep = (@keep, @tmp);
@tmp=();
print "$_\n" for @keep;
exit(0);
#----------------- SUBS ----------------------------
sub process_previous {
my $array_ref = shift;
my $keep_this_data = 0;
foreach my $elem(@$array_ref)
{
if ($elem !~ /\d:\d:\d$/ )
{
$keep_this_data = 1;
last;
}
}
if (!$keep_this_data)
{
#empty the array
@$array_ref = ();
}
}
__DATA__
7 hostname12 Generic-legacy 10000000AB210ACF6 ---
10000000AB210ACF4 2:5:4
10000000AB210ACF4 2:3:4
10000000AB210ACF6 3:5:4
9 hostname13 Generic 10000000AB2A3006A 3:5:2
10000000AB2A30068 2:5:2
23 srvernam Generic-legacy 5001438002A3004A 3:3:3
5001438002A3004A ---
5001438002A30048 2:3:3
5001438002A30048 2:5:2
5001438002A30048 2:5:2
9 hostname13 Generic 10000000AB2A3006A 3:5:2
10000000AB2A30068 2:5:2
21 HOSTNAME Generic
9 hostname13 Generic 10000000AB2A3006A 3:5:2
10000000AB2A30068 2:5:2
output
7 hostname12 Generic-legacy 10000000AB210ACF6 ---
10000000AB210ACF4 2:5:4
10000000AB210ACF4 2:3:4
10000000AB210ACF6 3:5:4
23 srvernam Generic-legacy 5001438002A3004A 3:3:3
5001438002A3004A ---
5001438002A30048 2:3:3
5001438002A30048 2:5:2
5001438002A30048 2:5:2
21 HOSTNAME Generic
I hope this helps.
Arnaud