I'm trying to write a simple logger class (code below) ... when I create more than one object from another Perl file, if I call ->message the text ends up in the correct file, if I call ->finish everything ends up in one file. I guess my mistake is to have created just one filehandle, but I can't spot what I'm doing wrong or where. I'd be grateful if someone can point out where I'm going wrong. Thanks 
sub new {
    my $class_name = shift;
    my $self = {};    
    $output_file = shift;    
    $append = shift;
    $file_handle = undef ;
    
    
        bless ($self,$class_name);
        bless ($self);
        return $self;     
}

# opens log file for writing
# (no argument) will be called from first call to &message if not call
+ed from outside
sub start{

    my $now = &get_timestamp;
    print "opening $output_file\n"; 
    if (uc($append)eq'APPEND') {
        open ($file_handle,">>$output_file")  || open ($file_handle,">
+$output_file") || die "Can't open $output_file $!";
    }else{
        open ($file_handle,">$output_file") || die "Can't open $output
+_file $!";
    }

    print $file_handle "Started logging at $now\n";
    print $file_handle "Logging to $output_file\n";    
    print $file_handle "\n";
}

#log a message 
# argument <a status>, <a text message>
sub message{

    #run start subprocedure if file not already open
    &start if (!$file_handle);
    
    my $status = $_[1];    
    my $text = $_[2];
    print $file_handle "$status : $text\n" ;
    #$message_number++;
}

#close log
# (no argument)
sub finish{

    #run start subprocedure if file not already open
    if (!$file_handle){
        &start;    
    }else{
        my $now = &get_timestamp;
        print $file_handle "\n";
        print $file_handle "Finished logging at $now\n";
        print $file_handle "-------------------------------------\n";
        #close ($file_handle);
    }

}

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In reply to creating 2 file writing objects by postman

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