wise and venerable monks... I'm runnning perl 5.8.1 on OS X, 10.3.4. my code: 
#!/usr/bin/perl -p
use strict;
use Net::FTP;
use POSIX qw(strftime);
my $filedir='./';
my $localfile='index.html';
my $bkup='index.html.tmp';
my $ftpserver='127.0.0.1';
my $ftpdir="";
my $user='scott';
my $password='tiger';
my $insertpoint='<!--insert here-->';
my $dateformat="%A, %d %B %Y, %H:%M:%S";
my $datestring=strftime($dateformat,localtime);
my $headline='';
my $post='';
my $ftpfl=0;
chdir($filedir) or die "can't chdir:$!\n";
my $old_fh=select(STDOUT);
$| = 1;
select($old_fh);
print "\nheadline:\n";
do{
    if ($headline eq ''){
        $headline=$_;
        print "post:\n";
    }else{ 
        $post.=$_;
    }
}while(<STDIN>);
print "headline: $headline\npost: $post\n";
open(ORIG,"< $localfile") or die "can't open $localfile:$!";
open(BKUP,"> $bkup") or die "can't open $bkup:$!";
select(BKUP);
while(<ORIG>){
    print BKUP $_ or die "can't write $bkup:$!";
    if ($_ =~ m/$insertpoint/ && $post =~ /^[A-Za-z]+$/){
        print BKUP "<div class=box><strong>$datestring $headline</stro
+ng>\n";
        print BKUP "<p class=post> $post</p></div>\n" or die "can't wr
+ite to $bkup:$!";
        $ftpfl=1;
    }
}
close(ORIG) or die "can't close $localfile:$!";
close(BKUP) or die "can't close $bkup:$!";
if ($ftpfl){
    print "renaming...\n";
    rename($localfile, "$localfile.orig") or die "can't rename $localf
+ile to $localfile.orig:$!";
    rename($bkup,$localfile) or die "can't rename $bkup to $localfile:
+$!";
    print "transferring...\n";
    my $ftp=Net::FTP->new($ftpserver) or die "Can't connect:$@\n";
    $ftp->login($user, $password) or die "can't login\n";
    $ftp->cwd($ftpdir) or die "can't cwd to $ftpdir\n";
    $ftp->put($localfile) or die "can't put $localfile\n";
}

[download]
i'm sure there's more than a few glaring errors, as it's been some time since i tried my hand at perl..but, the biggest problem so far is that STDOUT isn't acting as if it is flushed. when i run this, i see nothing until i start to enter data. once i hit the first carriage return, i see both prompts. I type the rest of the data, hit ^D, and see no other output...even though the files get updated. I know it's a newbie question, and I've R'd the FM, but i still don't see it.

In reply to can not flush stdout by jawright

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