my @data = `some_tool foo bar params 2> /dev/null | sort`;


##</code><code>##

my @data = sort `some_tool foo bar params 2> /dev/null`;


##</code><code>##

my $text = do {
    open my $fh => $file or die "open: $!\n";
    local $/;
    <$fh>;
};

##</code><code>##

my $text = `cat $file`;


##</code><code>##

sub slurp_file($) {
    open my $fh, (my $file = shift) or die "open $file: $!\n";
    local $/;
    <$fh>;
}