In the cases where I've wanted to make file handles local (without using File::Handle :-), I've done the following:

{
  local(*FH);
  open(FH, "<whatever")
}
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I think my works with file globs as well, but I'm not sure, as this is one instance where local() seems more intuitive (!) to me.

This is also useful for opening an arbitary number of files. Take a reference to the glob before exiting the local block:

{
  local(*FH);
  open(FH, "<whatever")
  $fh = \*FH;
}
print $fh "Foo\n";
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As an added bonus, the file will be closed automagically when $fh goes out of scope :-)

I would guess that opendir() and so on will work fine with this. I haven't tried it, of course, but there's no reason it shouldn't. Note that the asterix in local(*FOO) is important. local(FOO) has a different meaning...

Andrew.