Is there a way to reset a flip-flop operator? For example, I have the following text that I am searching for, in which I am scanning for processes which have a ':D' appended to the back of the :\d:\d (i.e. :0:0:D). There are a number of lines above the lines that I show, however there are no lines below.

.
<snip>
.
ClientSystemName (clisysname): 'SPIFF', Client LongId: '0008027E1180,/
+epic/tst/cachesys/mgr/'
PIDTAB for 128 jobs: (Job:PID:reswake:sflg[:D if dead]
Job: PID:resw:SF:D
  1: 5382  :0:0    2: 5384  :0:0    3: 5385  :0:0    4: 5386  :0:0
  5: 5394  :0:0    6: 5387  :0:0    7: 5388  :0:0    8: 5389  :0:0
  9: 5390  :0:0   10: 5391  :0:0   11: 5392  :0:0   12: 5393  :0:0
 13: 5456  :0:0   14: 5444  :0:0   15: 5445  :0:0   16: 14682 :1:0:D
 17: 5450  :0:0   19: 5453  :0:0   20: 14626 :0:0:D
[download]

Here's my code,

sub mySub {
  foreach ( @arr ) {
    if ( /^PIDTAB/ ... /^\n/ ) {
      next if ( /^(PIDTAB|\n)/ );

      while ( /\s+(\d+):\s+(\d+)\s*:\S+:\S+:D\s+/g ) {
         # do something
      }
    }
  }
}
[download]

This works fine the first time through. However, sometimes my flop never evaluates to true, because there is not a blank line at the end of my output. Since the flop will never evaluate to true, the next time I run mySub the operator will be in the true state.

Of course, I can just keep track of the state in a scalar rather than using the flip-flop operator, or I could do some kind of @arr manipulation. But I'm figuring that there is a Perl way of solving this problem that I'm not aware of. Any input is appreciated.

Some further clarification on the text I'm processing:
-sometimes there will be a final line with a newline, sometimes the last line shown there is the last line of input
-The number of lines of processes is unknown, and does not have any "keyword" that I'm aware of.

Update: The match is looking for :\d:\d, not :0:0, thanks to aartisesha for pointing out the error in my question.

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.