#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my ($myfile, @LINES);
open $myfile, "file" or
    die "Unable to open file: $!\n";
push @LINES, $_ for (<$myfile>);
#print "$_" for @LINES;
chomp ($LINES[$#LINES-1]) if ( $LINES[$#LINES] =~ m/\s+/ );
#print "$_" for @LINES;

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl

my @file = qx/cat file/;
chomp ($file[$#file]) if $file[$#file] =~ m/\s+/;