No this is not incorrect at all, it is exactly what you expect. The glob *X consists of the following elements $X @X %X &X and X (the filehandle). When you write open *X, $foo Perl opens $foo onto the filehandle X from the *X glob. Thus when you say close X you close the filehandle X - this is what your close $_ example does. When you say close *X Perl also does a close X as X is the filehandle in the *X glob - this is what your close $rh{$_} example does.

Update (changed code to better example)

#/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my %rh = (E=> *E, F=> *F, G=> *G);

{
    no strict 'refs';
    
    print "\n\n\$_ has a value, used as a hard reference\n";
    for (values %rh) {
        open  $_, ">test.txt" or die $!;
        print $_ "$_ This works\n";
        close $_  or die $!;
        open  $_, "<test.txt" or die $!; 
        print <$_>;
        close $_ or die $!;
        unlink "test.txt" or die $!;
    }
    
    print "\n\n\$_ has a value, used as a symbolic reference\n";
    for (keys %rh) {
        open  $_, ">test.txt" or die $!;
        print $_ "$_ This works\n";
        close $_  or die $!;
        open  $_, "<test.txt" or die $!; 
        print <$_>;
        close $_ or die $!;
        unlink "test.txt" or die $!;
    }
}

# and under strict....

print "\n\n\$_ has a value, used as a hard reference\n";
for (values %rh) {
    open  $_, ">test.txt" or die $!;
    print $_ "$_ This works\n";
    close $_  or die $!;
    open  $_, "<test.txt" or die $!; 
    print <$_>;
    close $_ or die $!;
    unlink "test.txt" or die $!;
}

print "\n\n\$_ has a value, used as a symbolic reference\n";
for (keys %rh) {
    open  $_, ">test.txt" or die $!;
    print $_ "$_ This works\n";
    close $_  or die $!;
    open  $_, "<test.txt" or die $!; 
    print <$_>;
    close $_ or die $!;
    unlink "test.txt" or die $!;
}
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Part of the problem you are having is not distinguishing a hard reference (OK under strict) an a symbolic reference (not OK under strict)

cheers

tachyon

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