cat /come/and/play/with/$i | perl -ne 'print if length((split /,/)[10]) > 6' #### cat /come/and/play/with/$i | perl -ne 'print if length((split /,/)[10]) > 6' #### perl -ne 'print if length((split /,/)[10]) > 6' /come/and/play/with/$i #### cat file | some_command and its args ... #### ## some_command and its args ... file