I can't speak directly to efficiency as it's hardly my specialty, but I would suggest a change to this chunk:
while($line = <F>)
{
for $hit ($line =~ /matchdata/gi)
{
push @files, $name;
}
}
close F;
Logically it seems like you want to check to see if the file you're currently examining has data that needs to be updated (you're saving the filename in
@files for later processing) -- but you're pushing the filename onto your list once for each match in the file! Once you find a match in a particular file you should (based on my understanding of your goal) (1) push the filename onto your to-be-processed stack, and then (2) move on to the next file. So:
while($line = <F>)
{
if ($line =~ /matchdata/i)
{
push @files, $name;
last;
}
}
close F;
Note that I dropped the global flag for the match operator, too -- you just want to know if there's something there, anywhere, to be fixed later, and then move on.
Naturally, if I misunderstand your goals this could be way off base :)
