Hello ppp,
i think your assumption is wrong: Perl does not complain for an empty file 
use strict;
use warnings;

open my $fh, '<', 'C:\scripts\vacuum.txt', or die "Could not open file
+ $!";
    while (my $line = <$fh>)
    {   
              print "line $. reading '$line'\n";
             
    }
#update: removed nonsense part as pointed by BrowserUk below

[download]

You must have some other issue like permission, path or other.

Anyway you can test the size of a file with file test operators: 
-e  File exists.
-z  File has zero size (is empty).
-s  File has nonzero size (returns size in bytes).

>perl -we "use strict; my $file = 'c:\scripts\vacuum.txt'; if (-e -s $
+file){print qq(it exists and has not zero lenght\n)} else {print qq(e
+xists but zero lenght\n)}"
exists but zero lenght

>perl -we "use strict; my $file = 'c:\scripts\002.txt'; if (-e -s $fil
+e){print qq(it exists and has not z
ero lenght\n)} else {print qq(exists but zero lenght\n)}"
it exists and has not zero lenght

[download]
Also see sysopen to have a more granular approach opening files

HtH
L*
There are no rules, there are no thumbs..
Reinvent the wheel, then learn The Wheel; may be one day you reinvent one of THE WHEELS.

In reply to Re: How to handle the error when we try to read an empty text file in perl by Discipulus
in thread How to handle the error when we try to read an empty text file in perl by ppp

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