local $/= undef; # read entire file at once
my @text=<FH>;

##</code><code>##

my $data;
open(FH,'<',$file) || die "Oops $!";
local $/ = undef;
$data = <FH>;
close(FH);

##</code><code>##

use strict;
use warnings 'all';

# Uncomment this to see what I mean
# local $/ = undef;
open(FH,'<',"test.txt") || die "oops: $!";
my @data = <FH>;
close (FH);
print $data[0];