Perhaps you should follow the advice of the manpage:

       When the form is processed, you can retrieve the entered
       filename by calling param():

              $filename = $query->param('uploaded_file');

       Different browsers will return slightly different things
       for the name.  Some browsers return the filename only.
       Others return the full path to the file, using the path
       conventions of the user's machine.  Regardless, the name
       returned is always the name of the file on the user's
       machine, and is unrelated to the name of the temporary
       file that CGI.pm creates during upload spooling (see
       below).

       The filename returned is also a file handle.  You can read
       the contents of the file using standard Perl file reading
       calls:

               # Read a text file and print it out
               while (<$filename>) {
                  print;
               }

               # Copy a binary file to somewhere safe
               open (OUTFILE,">>/usr/local/web/users/feedback");
               while ($bytesread=read($filename,$buffer,1024)) {
                  print OUTFILE $buffer;
               }

       However, there are problems with the dual nature of the
       upload fields.  If you "use strict", then Perl will com-
       plain when you try to use a string as a filehandle.  You
       can get around this by placing the file reading code in a
       block containing the "no strict" pragma.  More seriously,
       it is possible for the remote user to type garbage into
       the upload field, in which case what you get from param()
       is not a filehandle at all, but a string.

       To be safe, use the upload() function (new in version
       2.47).  When called with the name of an upload field,
       upload() returns a filehandle, or undef if the parameter
       is not a valid filehandle.

            $fh = $query->upload('uploaded_file');
            while (<$fh>) {
                  print;
            }

       In an array context, upload() will return an array of
       filehandles.  This makes it possible to create forms that
       use the same name for multiple upload fields.

       This is the recommended idiom.
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-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.