$| = 1; undef $/; # or not if slurping to array. my $file; my @file; my $START_TIME = time; my $filename = 'C:\Documents and Settings\ron\My Documents\FGwing\new_rptgen\DATA\run001\ENG_mod.262-08_41_43'; # substitute your own big file open (FILE, "$filename") or die "can't open $filename"; $file = ; # or @file= ; sub END{ my $END_TIME = time; my $RUN_TIME = $END_TIME - $START_TIME; print STDOUT "\n\n Phew, that took $RUN_TIME seconds.\n\n"; }