I would now like to use 'use strict' but 'use strict' doesn't regard 'local' as a way of defining a variable, so I get many "... requires explicit package name at..." messages.

That's because local doesn't define variables. It merely changes the value in an already existing package variable.

I remember reading somewhere that 'local' works whereas 'my' doesn't when dealing with file handles... Am I remembering incorrectly? I can't find this.

That's right. Filehandles only ever exist as package "variables" in typeglobs. You have to localise them with local you can't create lexical filehandles with my - although you can now create lexical filehandle objects with syntax like:

my $fh = IO::Handle->new;

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I am now considering changing all occurrences of 'local' in the script to 'my' but am worried that this will break the code.

There's a chance that this will break your code. The best way to make your script "strict-clean" is to define all of your variables at the file level with use vars or our.

Are there places where I can read about the differences between 'my' and 'local'?

I like Dominus' articles Coping With Scoping and Seven useful uses of local.

--
<http://www.dave.org.uk>

"The first rule of Perl club is you do not talk about Perl club."
-- Chip Salzenberg

In reply to Re: local vs my by davorg
in thread local vs my by rzward

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