I'm taking a wild shot-in-the-dark here, but according to 'perldoc -f open': 
       open FILEHANDLE,EXPR
       open FILEHANDLE,MODE,EXPR
       open FILEHANDLE,MODE,EXPR,LIST
       open FILEHANDLE,MODE,REFERENCE
       open FILEHANDLE

       <snip>

       In the 2-arguments (and 1-argument) form opening
       ’-’ opens STDIN and opening ’>-’ opens STDOUT.

[download]
So, I'm wondering if changing your 
    my $file = 'STDIN';
        to
    my $file = '-';

[download]
would work???

HTH.

In reply to Re: STDIN question by hmerrill
in thread STDIN question by rkg

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