sub myfile
{
  my $file = shift;
  open my $fh, $file or die "Couldn't open '$file': $!";   
  my @lines = <$fh>;
  close $fh or die "Couldn't close '$file': $!";
  return \@lines;
}

# and call it like this:
my @lines = @{myfile('xml.log')};