The rule:
Never use $! unless you've recently checked for an O/S request failure.
This is akin to the rule:
Never use $1 (and friends) unless you've recently checked for a match success.
because both share the same principle: these variables are set, but never reset. So you might be looking at stale results.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

In reply to •Re: You *Can* Catch errors in closing lexical filehandles by merlyn
in thread Catching errors in closing lexical filehandles by gaal

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