Search and replace a particular string in a file using Perl

A one liner:

perl -pi.back -e 's/<PREF>/ABCD/g;' inputfile

You could also do this:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

$^I = '.bak'; # create a backup copy 

while (<>) {
   s/<PREF>/ABCD/g; # do the replacement
   print; # print to the modified file
}

Invoke the script with by

./script.pl input_file

You will get a file named input_file, containing your changes, and a file named input_file.bak, which is simply a copy of the original file.

Quick and dirty:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

open(FILE, "</tmp/yourfile.txt") || die "File not found";
my @lines = <FILE>;
close(FILE);

foreach(@lines) {
   $_ =~ s/<PREF>/ABCD/g;
}

open(FILE, ">/tmp/yourfile.txt") || die "File not found";
print FILE @lines;
close(FILE);

Perhaps it i a good idea not to write the result back to your original file; instead write it to a copy and check the result first.