or download this
my $s_filename = 'path/to/file';
my ($dev, $ino, $mode, $nlink, $uid, $gid, $rdev, $size, $atime, $mtim
+e, $ctime, $blksize, $blocks) = stat $s_filename;
open FILE, "<$s_filename" or die "no such file";
...
my $pem_cert;
read FILE, $pem_cert, $size;
close FILE;