extract repeating text segments

[mrlambdin]

I have an archive file (PIDATA) that contains multiple (>30) segments of text like this:

[b]Archive[0]: d:\archives\piarch.012  (500MB, Used: 9.0%)[/b]
        PIarcfilehead[$Workfile: piarfile.cxx $ $Revision: 114 $]::
          Version: 5 Path: d:\archives\piarch.012
          State: 4 Type: 0 (fixed) Write Flag: 1 Shift Flag: 1
          Record Size: 1024 Count: 512000  Add Rate/Hour: 4118.3
          Offsets: Primary: 25853/128000 Overflow: 491596/512000
               [B]Start Time: 1-Apr-08 22:02:38[/B]
                 [B]End Time: Current Time[/B]
              Backup Time: 2-Apr-08 02:01:07

The program repeats this over and over, naming each segment "Archive[1,2,3..]" and I need to extract the bold sections, and print them on one line... for example, I'd like THIS:

Archive[0]: d:\archives\pia rch.012 (500MB, Used: 9.0%) ..... Start Time: 1-Apr-08 22:02:38 ..... End Time: Current Time

ALL on one line.

Here's my PERL script, but it doesn't seem to work.

[CODE=perl]#!/usr/bin/perl
while(<PIDATA>) {

if (m/Archive.[\d+].*/) {
$m1 =~ "$MATCH";
}
if (m/Start\sTime.*/) {
$m2 =~ "$MATCH";
}
if (m/End\sTime.*/) {
$m3 =~ "$MATCH";
}
print "$m1 \s $m2 \s $m3\n\n";

}
[/CODE]

I tried to loop over the text file, and redirect the output, but the file is empty after running this.

HELP!

[nithinpes]

The square brackets inside pattern need to be escaped, else it will be mistaken for character class. Also, what is the $MATCH that you are trying to match after matching the desired pattern.
From your description, I feel all you need is to print out those emphasised lines. Try this:

while(<PIDATA>){
     print $_ if((/^\s*Archive\[\d+\].*/)||(/^\s*Start\s+Time.*/)||(/^\s*End\s+Time.*/)) ;
}

[mrlambdin]

I've removed my code and placed yours into the file piarchive.pl... . NO errors, but when I redirect output, the file is empty. Something's wrong...
I run this:

perl piarchive.pl > output

And I get the file "output" but it's empty.

[nithinpes]

I've removed my code and placed yours into the file piarchive.pl... . NO errors, but when I redirect output, the file is empty. Something's wrong...
I run this:

perl piarchive.pl > output

And I get the file "output" but it's empty.

For the given sample data, I got the desired output.

open(PIDATA,"data.txt") or die "open failed:$!";
while(<PIDATA>){
 print $_ if((/^\s*Archive\[\d+\].*/)||(/^\s*Start\s+Time.*/)||(/^\s*End\s+Time.*/)) ;
}

On command line, I executed the following line:

perl archive.pl > C:\\output.txt

The file output.txt contained:

Archive[0]: d:\archives\piarch.012  (500MB, Used: 9.0%)
               Start Time: 1-Apr-08 22:02:38
                 End Time: Current Time

If you want this in one line, modify

while(<PIDATA>){
 print $_ if((/^\s*Archive\[\d+\].*/)||(/^\s*Start\s+Time.*/)||(/^\s*End\s+Time.*/)) ;
}

to:

while(<PIDATA>){
 chomp;
 print "$_ ..." if((/^\s*Archive\[\d+\].*/)||(/^\s*Start\s+Time.*/)||(/^\s*End\s+Time.*/)) ;
}

[nithinpes]

Alternately, you can write into the output file within the script:

open(PIDATA,"data.txt") or die "open failed:$!";
open(OUT,"output.txt") or die "create failed:$!";
while(<PIDATA>){
 chomp;
 print OUT "$_ ..." if((/^\s*Archive\[\d+\].*/)||(/^\s*Start\s+Time.*/)||(/^\s*End\s+Time.*/)) ;
}

[mrlambdin]

Thanks for the help!