I want to just combine or append a line to the beginning of a file. Is the processing complexity as low to do the following? open (OUT, ">$q->param('outfile')") || die $!; # Open our output file open (IN, $q->param($filename)) || die $!; # Open each input file print OUT <IN>; # Print the input file to the output file close (IN); # Make sure you close the input file close (OUT); vs. over external command such as: `copy $file1+$file2 fileout`;