use strict;
use warnings;

# open an input stream
# same effect as:
# cat /mnt/scripts/lagtime/tmp/input.txt|

# if fail, print reason ($!) and abort
open IN, '<', '/mnt/scripts/lagtime/tmp/input.txt'
  or die "Couldn't open input file: $!";

# open an output stream
# same effect as:
# > /tmp/snapvault_status.out.out;

# if fail, print reason ($!) and abort
open OUT, '>', '/tmp/snapvault_status.out.out'
  or die "Couldn't open output file: $!";


# equivalent to your awk program
# { printf "%1.50s\t%0.60s\t%0.45s\t %0.45s\n", $1, $2, $3, $4 }

while (my $line=<DATA>) {
  # chomp: remove record separator
  # split: break into fields using default AWK field separator
  # (a single space which is equivalent to the Perl regex m{ }

  my @aFields = split(m{ }, $line);
  chomp $line;
  printf OUT "%1.50s\t%0.60s\t%0.45s\t %0.45s\n", @aFields
}