Yes, writing to an unopened file handle will result in the run time warning like this: print() on unopened filehandle OUT at C:\Projects_Perl\testing\junk.pl line 11. The code keeps going. Normally what is desired is to "die" when the open fails as something presumably very important didn't happen. If you check the status of the open with an "or die", you also get the line number of where this failure occurred. Try it yourself...

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

print OUT "something";
print "I kept going";

__END__

Name "main::OUT" used only once: possible typo at C:\Projects_Perl\tes
+ting\testopenfailure.pl line 5.
print() on unopened filehandle OUT at C:\Projects_Perl\testing\testope
+nfailure.pl line 5.
I kept going
Process completed successfully
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