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while (<FILE>){};
print "length = $.";

#!/usr/bin/perl

...
                close(INFILE);
        }
});

Benchmark: timing 100 iterations of chunk, line_by_line...
     chunk:  3 wallclock secs ( 1.58 usr +  0.70 sys =  2.28 CPU) @ 43
+.80/s (n=100)
     line_by_line: 12 wallclock secs ( 9.54 usr +  0.72 sys = 10.27 CP
+U) @  9.74/s (n=100)

open INFILE,'test.dat' or die "open: $!";
my $count = 0;
while (sysread(INFILE,$_,102400)) { $count += tr/\n//; }

/home/rhet/misc> ./testfcount.pl
Benchmark: timing 100 iterations of chunk, line_by_line, sysread...
     chunk: 12 wallclock secs ( 8.00 usr +  3.52 sys = 11.53 CPU) @  8
+.68/s (n=100)
     line_by_line: 154 wallclock secs (149.20 usr +  3.29 sys = 152.50
+ CPU) @  0.66/s (n=100)
     sysread:  6 wallclock secs ( 4.09 usr +  1.62 sys =  5.71 CPU) @ 
+17.52/s (n=100)