$
$
$ cat f14
abcd today
is
great
day;
abcd
another one
over
here;
some
text
here;
and some more...
$
$
$
$ perl -ne 'chomp;
if (/abcd/) {$x .= $_; $in = 1}
Please do not try to oversimplify problems. State them as they stand. Also, provide a representative sample which shows all (or most of) the possible ways in which the input data might occur.