### Back up the file, if it exists
use File::Copy;
if(-e $file{1})  # if the file exists
{
     unless(copy($file{1}, $file{2}))
     {
          print "Failed to copy file: $!";
          exit;  # unless you want to do the copy anyway
     }
}

### Copy the database

##</code><code>##

if(-e $file{1}) # if the file exists
{
   open FILE1, "< $file{1} or die "Failed to open $file{1}".        
                   " for reading: $!";
   local $/ = "";    # prepare to read the whole 
                     # file in at once
   my $filecontents = <FILE1>;
   close FILE1;
   open FILE2, "> $file{2} or die "Failed to open $file{2}".
                    " for writing: $!";
   print FILE2 $filecontents;
   close FILE2;
}