Filehandles are global, irrespective of the scope in which they are referenced. To say the filehandle closes when the reference count reaches zero is incorrect. Try it... 
use strict;
use warnings;

if (1) {
   my $fh = \*FH;
   open $fh, 'ls /usr |';
}

$_ = <FH>;

warn $_;

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After the closing braces, there is nothing left in scope. In spite of that the filehandle FH remains open and $_ will be populated with the first file in /usr.

Update: I didn't realise I was arguing against perldoc. LOL, oh well, I can't retract what I know to be true!

One world, one people

In reply to Re^2: Scoping question - will file handle be closed? by anonymized user 468275
in thread Scoping question - will file handle be closed? by Monk::Thomas

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