> > Try > > sed -e "s/^\/\/ \([^ ]*\).*/$1/g" > oops, forgot, sed not perl > sed -e "s/^\/\/ \([^ ]*\).*/\1/g" Yep, sed -e "s/^\/\/ \([^ ]*\).*/epsf[c]{\1.eps}/g" does it in one pass. Cool; less forking, more working.