UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I have some trouble editing a line. My aim is to edit the first line of a file.It will look the code and if there are dummy characters at the begininng of line before < it will erase. It is a php code.For instance:
for instance if the first line is like
%^<?php>sadsa</php>, it will change it to
<?php>sadsa</php>
thanks in advance
Of course it is a bash script

Code:

echo '%^<?php>sadsa</php>'| sed 's/^[^ <]*//1'
<?php>sadsa</php>

using Perl:

Code:

perl -pi -e 'if (/^(.*?)\</) { s/^(.*?)\</</ }' filename

but the beginning of line can be changeable it can start abc or cde, what it will do, delete what ever in front of the first < and make the line start with <
besides it will change the original file

Thanks, but now I am trying that in each line
everything except < and > with it inside of them for example sadas<sadasdass>.,s
it will change every line like that to <sadasdass>
Thanks in advance

echo "abc<sadsa>fds" | sed 's/.*\(<.*>\).*/\1/'
<sadsa>

echo "pre<?php>abc</php>last" | sed 's|.*<?php>\(.*\)</php>.*|\1|'
abc