for Unix: perl -i.bak -0777 -lpe 's/\nef\n/\nef\na test content\n\n/' a.txt for Windows: perl -i.bak -0777 -lpe "s/\nef\n/\nef\na test content\n\n/" a.txt #### Unix: perl -i.bak -pe 'print "a test content\n\n" if $.==4' a.txt Windows: perl -i.bak -pe "print qq{a test content\n\n} if $.==4" a.txt