use Carp qw/croak/; sub file_write { my $file = shift; open IO, ">$file" or croak "Cannot open $file for output: $!\n"; print IO @_; close IO; } sub file_read { my $file = shift; open IO, $file or croak "Cannot open $file for input: $!\n"; my @data = ; close IO; wantarray ? @data : join( '' => @data ); }