$ cat target-file.txt Address1= Address2= Address3= $ perl -Mstrict -wnle 'our @ports; BEGIN { my $source = "tcp 20 tcp 40 tcp 80"; @ports = $source =~ /tcp\s+(\d+)/g;} $_ .= shift(@ports); print' target-file.txt > output.txt $ cat output.txt Address1=20 Address2=40 Address3=80 $ cat target-file.txt Address1= Address2= Address3=