Naw, you just need to set $/ appropriately. There is no real difference between 

binmode $fh;
read($fh, my $buf, 20000);

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and 
binmode $fh;
local $/ = \20000;
my $buf = <$fh>;

[download]

Of course, both are junk. Why would you only read the first 20,000 bytes? The following make more sense: 

binmode $fh;
my $file = '';
1 while read($fh, $file, 8*1024, length($file));

[download]
or 
binmode $fh;
local $/;
my $file = <$fh>;

[download]

In reply to Re^6: Error binmode() on unopened filehandle by ikegami
in thread Error binmode() on unopened filehandle by RedJeep

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