#!/usr/bin/perl ; $.= 39; print "$. $_" while ; __DATA__ line 1 line 2 line 3 #### #!/usr/bin/perl seek DATA,0,0; print "$. $_" while ; __DATA__ line 1 line 2 line 3 #### 1 #!/usr/bin/perl 2 3 seek DATA,0,0; 4 print "$. $_" while ; 5 __DATA__ 6 7 line 1 8 line 2 9 line 3 #### Using the "__DATA__" token creates an implicit filehandle to the file that contains the token. It is the program's responsibility to close it when it is done reading from it.