It bugs me that $/ is global.

You could avoid $/ by using read which, I believe, is more efficient.

sub scanfile ($) {
    my $filename = shift;
    open my $handle, '<', $filename or croak "$filename: $!";
    read $handle, my $buffer, -s $handle;
    return scan ($buffer);
}
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HTH,
Charles K. Clarkson

And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
- Dr. Seuss