Did you know that reads the whole file into memory? It limits the size of files you can edit to the amount of RAM you have (and perl has access to)

Yep, that's what slurping a file is ...

That /\>/ hints to me the OP might be dealing with gigabyte sized files, probably a good idea to avoid slurping

Or, maybe a 20-line conf file of some sort. Or anything. 99% of all files that are read are not of gigabyte size, I reckon, and new perlers are often needlessly steered away from using existing modules by more experienced programmers who are thinking about edge cases.