my $n = 0; 
open (FH, "<", 'path/to/file.txt') or die "$!"; 
$n = <FH>; 
close FH; 
if ($n < 3) { 
   open (FH, ">", 'path/to/file.txt') or die "$!"; 
   print FH ++$n; 
   close FH;  
} 
else { 
   exit(0); 
}  
#your existing code here

#!/usr/bin/perl 
 
use strict; 
use warnings; 
use LWP::Simple; 
use File::CounterFile; 
 
# Store the page in the string $webpage 
my $webpage = get('http://www.yourdomain/test.html'); 
 
# Check if the requested webpage is there 
unless ( $webpage ) { 
    # you might want to create a log entry 
    exit; 
} 
 
# the date is passed to the script as an argument 
# and I really should add some error handling to this part 
my $date = shift; 
 
if ( $webpage =~ m|$date| ) { 
    my $counter = File::CounterFile->new('/fullpathto/alert-count.txt', 0); 
    if ( $counter->value <= 3 ) { 
        $counter->inc; 
         
        # personally, I'd use MIME::Lite to send the email 
        # but this method is common and ok. 
        my $mailprog = '/usr/sbin/sendmail -oeq -t'; 
        my $recipient = 'test@yahoo.net'; 
        my $sender = 'test@gmail.com'; 
        open (MAIL, "|$mailprog"); 
        print MAIL "To: $recipient\n"; 
        print MAIL "From: $sender\n"; 
        print MAIL "Subject: Schedule Page Updated or down\n\n"; 
        print MAIL "NEW Basketball schedule may be posted."; 
        print MAIL "Must Call ASAP."; 
        close (MAIL);         
    } 
}

#!/usr/bin/perl  
 
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);  
use LWP::UserAgent;  
 
my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent;  
my $req = new HTTP::Request('GET', 'http://www.yourdomain/test.html');  
my $res = $ua->request($req);  
 
 
# Check if the requested webpage is there  
if ($res->is_success) { # Request successful  
   $webpage = $res->content; # Store the page in the string $webpage  
}  
 
@webpage = split(/\n/,$webpage);  
$found = 0;#false 
foreach $line (@webpage) {  
 
   # Below is the text you want to look for (I use the date)  
   # Example looking for 12/20/08  
   if ($line =~ /12\/20\/08/) {  
      $found = 1;#true  
      # Ok, we found a webpage with the above text in the HTML-code.  
      # So the webpage we are watching has not changed  
   }  
}  
 
my $n = 0;  
open (FH, "<", '/fullpathto/alert-count.txt') or die "$!";  
$n = <FH>;  
close FH;  
if ($n < 3) {  
   open (FH, ">", '/fullpathto/alert-count.txt') or die "$!";  
   print FH ++$n;  
   close FH;  
}  
else {  
   exit(0); #<---here your program might exit before sending an email  
}  
#your existing code here  
 
if ($found) {  
   # Write the alert-email  
   $mailprog = '/usr/sbin/sendmail -oeq -t';  
   $recipient = 'test@yahoo.net';  
   $sender = 'test@gmail.com';  
   open (MAIL, "|$mailprog");  
   print MAIL "To: $recipient\n";  
   print MAIL "From: $sender\n";  
   print MAIL "Subject: Schedule Page Updated or down\n\n";  
   print MAIL "NEW Basketball schedule may be posted.";  
   print MAIL "Must Call ASAP.";  
   close (MAIL);  
}  
 
exit;

#!/usr/bin/perl 
 
use strict; 
use warnings; 
use LWP::Simple; 
 
my $date = $ARGV[0] or die "Usage: $0 mm/dd/yy\n"; 
my $counter_file = '/path/to/alert-count.txt'; 
 
open( my $FH, '+<', $counter_file ) or die $!; 
my $cnt = <$FH> || 0; 
 
if ($cnt < 3) { 
   seek($FH, 0, 0); 
   truncate $FH, 0; 
   print $FH ++$cnt; 
 
   my $webpage = get('http://www.yourdomain/test.html'); 
   unless( defined $webpage ) { 
      die "failed to download schedule"; 
   } 
 
   send_email() if $webpage =~ m|$date|; 
} 
close $FH; 
 
 
 
sub send_email { 
   # Write the alert-email 
   my $mailprog = '/usr/sbin/sendmail -oeq -t'; 
   my $recipient = 'test@yahoo.net'; 
   my $sender = 'test@gmail.com'; 
   open (MAIL, "|$mailprog") or die "can't pipe to sendmail $!";; 
   print MAIL "To: $recipient\n"; 
   print MAIL "From: $sender\n"; 
   print MAIL "Subject: Schedule Page Updated or down\n\n"; 
   print MAIL "NEW Basketball schedule may be posted."; 
   print MAIL "Must Call ASAP."; 
   close (MAIL); 
}