You shouldn't always die - you should always be prepared. The open you specified will empty any existing file, or create an empty one if one doesn't exist. The open will fail if you haven't enough permissions, or something like that. If, however, you do something like

open FH,"user1.cfg" or make_new_conf("user1.cfg");
[download]

Then you'd deal with the inexistant file problem you think you needn't deal with. Then, should the file be inexistant - the open will also fail, making a new conf file instead (provided you have defined such a sub). If other errors occur, the same sub will also be called)

Always be prepared for errors - you don't need to fatalise them, you don't need to even report them - just don't count on system calls to always succeed, as they may not.

Update: dyslexia strikes again - it seemed clear when i reviewed it... =P sorry.

-nuffin
zz zZ Z Z #!perl