A simple way: 
    print scalar <FOO>;
    while (<FOO>) {print if eof}

[download]

or 

    $ perl -ne 'BEGIN {print scalar <>} print if eof' /path/to/your/fi
+le

[download]

Or you could use the toolkit: 

    system head => -1 => $file;
    system tail => -1 => $file;

[download]

The latter solution always prints 2 lines, even if the file contains 1 line - the first two solutions will print just 1 line. If the input file is empty, the first two solutions will start reading from STDIN, while the latter won't print anything.

Abigail

In reply to Re: Capturing the first and last line of a file ? by Abigail-II
in thread Capturing the first and last line of a file ? by Anonymous Monk

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