Why can't you do something like this? 
opendir(DIR,"/etc")|| die "ERROR_MSG:$!\n";
foo(*DIR);

sub foo{
  my (*ETC) = $_[0];

  while(<ETC>){
    print;
  }
}

[download]
why does it have to be local?

In reply to Why does only 'local' work on typeglobs and not 'my' by Anonymous Monk

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