use File::ReadBackwards;

open(my $fh, "test") or die("ack - $!");
my $first = <$fh>;
close $fh
my $last  = File::ReadBackwards->new("test")->readline;
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See. File::ReadBackwards for more info on the module and Performing a tail(1) in Perl (reading the last N lines of a file) for a good node on reading the last line of a file.
HTH

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broquaint