PS, perldoc is your friend...

laptop:~> perldoc -f chop

chop VARIABLE
chop LIST
chop    Chops off the last character of a string and
        returns the character chopped.  It is much more
        efficient than "s/.$//s" because it neither scans
        nor copies the string.  If VARIABLE is omitted,
        chops $_.  If VARIABLE is a hash, it chops the
        hash's values, but not its keys.

        You can actually chop anything that's an lvalue,
        including an assignment.

        If you chop a list, each element is chopped.  Only
        the value of the last "chop" is returned.

        Note that "chop" returns the last character.  To
        return all but the last character, use "sub-
        str($string, 0, -1)".