Is this better?

{
    local *NEWOUT;
    open(NEWOUT, "> $file") or die "Cannot open ($file): $!";
    my $oldfh = select(NEWOUT);
    # print some stuff here
    select($oldfh);
}
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Of course, if you're going to run a system call, you might just use shell redirection to the file. There's more than one way to tame this camel. (Caveat added because I'm not sure redirecting STDOUT in a Perl parent will affect the non-Perl child.)