#  open (OUTFILE, ">", "$output_file") or die "Couldn't open $output_file for writing: $!";
  open my $outfile, ">", $output_file or die "Couldn't open $output_file for writing: $!";
#  binmode $filename; #just to be sure?

  while ($bytesread = read($filename, $buffer, $num_bytes)) {
    $totalbytes += $bytesread;
    print OUTFILE $buffer;
  }
##  die 
print "Read Failure: $!" unless defined($bytesread);