Since close FILE is the last statement in the second script, the ; is optional.

I view the 'optional' semi-colon the same way I view the 'optional' comma on the last item of a list. I just know that I'll want to add something else later, and since the Perl compiler is forgiving, I just add it automatically.

Nota Bene: Just because I know that some particular piece of punctuation is optional (in the sense that the Compiler does the right thing if it is present or absent) doesn't automatically mean that I will remember when I am debugging a problem at O'Dark-Hundred with the entire site down. Don't leave land-mines lying around for the next person to stumble over two years later, it may be you....

Update =====
Added the quote from kenosis

The semi-colon is only option if it's omitted from the last line of your code.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you here, but when I mentioned "statement," I (implicitly) meant a line containing a set of executable commands, since a semi-colon isn't required on any one of the last four lines of the following script:

use strict;
use warnings;

print "Hello, world.\n";

#
#
#
#
[download]

My use of the term "statement" may not have been the best, in this context.

Your Nota Bene bears an especially crucial message and I appreciate you adding it. Thank you, and the message is well noted.

"The end of the script" is just part of the truth. It actually is "The end of a scope":

$ perl -MO=Deparse -e'print $a'
print $a;
-e syntax OK
$ perl -MO=Deparse -e'{print $a}'
{
    print $a;
}
-e syntax OK
$ perl -MO=Deparse -e'{print $a}print $a'
{
    print $a;
}
print $a;
-e syntax OK
[download]


Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn

You're most welcome, cspctec!

Wow, I can't believe I missed that. It's always something small and stupid that makes you feel like an idiot...

Have been there all too often...