#!/usr/bin/env perl -l use strict; use warnings; my @test_data = ( [qw{discardA1 discardA2 lineA wantedA1 wantedA2}], [qw{discardB1 discardB2 lineB wantedB1 wantedB2}], [qw{discardC1 discardC2 lineC wantedC1 wantedC2}], ); for (@test_data) { my @ssh = @$_; my $wanted_found = 0; for my $line (@ssh) { if (! $wanted_found) { next unless $wanted_found = $line =~ /line/; } print $line; } }