use IO::Compress::Gzip qw(gzip $GzipError) 
# other code...
IO::Compress::Gzip::gzip(\$content, \$newContent) or die "gzip failed: $GzipError\n"

##</code><code>##

    my @transferFileContents = <FILE_TO_TRANSFER>;
    foreach(@transferFileContents)
    {
      $content .= $_;
    }

##</code><code>##

$content = do { local $/; my $rv = <FILE_TO_TRANSFER>; $rv };

##</code><code>##

$content = do { # minimize scope
    local $/; # make input separator undef 'till the end of this scope
    my $rv = <FILE_TO_TRANSFER>; # get all contents
    $rv # return it
};