#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my $valueToDelete = $ARGV[0] || "two 222 sld"; open(FH, "oldfile") or die "open failed: $!"; my @contents = ; close(FH); open(FH, ">oldfile") or die "open failed: $!"; foreach my $line (@contents) { print FH $line if($line !~ /$valueToDelete/); } close(FH);