http://rt.perl.org/rt2/Ticket/Display.html?id=8636 The example was both confusing and slightly broken. This patch clears up the idea of the example. It is to be applied on top of my latest patch for [perl #8634] in message <20030509105738.GD49820@geeknest.com>. Casey West -- Hit any user to continue. --- perl-current.orig/pod/perlop.pod Fri May 9 08:11:45 2003 +++ perl-current/pod/perlop.pod Fri May 9 07:56:49 2003 @@ -484,10 +484,14 @@ # parse mail messages while (<>) { $in_header = 1 .. /^$/; - $in_body = /^$/ .. eof(); - # do something based on those + $in_body = /^$/ .. eof; + if ($in_header) { + # ... + } else { # in body + # ... + } } continue { - close ARGV if eof; # reset $. each file + close ARGV if eof; # reset $. each file } As a list operator: