You're trying to do too much on one line:

  open ( LOG, $log ) || warn "  Couldn't open log\n" if ($debug);
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Here's how it deparses:

  $ perl -MO=Deparse,-p -e 'open F, shift || warn $! if $debug'
  ($debug and open(F, (shift(@ARGV) || warn($!))));
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In other words, you only try to open the filehandle if $debug is true.

Cheers,
Ovid

New address of my CGI Course.
Silence is Evil (feel free to copy and distribute widely - note copyright text)