my @args = qw/ perl -i -ne 'print unless eof' filename /;
system(@args) == 0 or die "error with deleting last line";
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I don't think you understand what qw does. Try running this and I think you will figure it out.

my @args = qw/ perl -i -ne 'print unless eof' filename /;
print join "|", @args;
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--

flounder

That was just a one-liner.

If you need to do something more sophisticated as part of a program you should try something like this.

    #!/usr/bin/perl -w

    use strict;

    # Localised in-place edit
    {
        local $^I = ''; # or use '.bak' to save a back-up 
        local @ARGV = 'somefile';

        while (<>) {
            print unless eof;
        }
    }

    __END__
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--
John.