Since what you're doing looks like logging, why not go full throttle and use Log::Log4perl: 
    my $outfile;

    use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);

    Log::Log4perl->easy_init(
        {level => $DEBUG,
         file  => (defined $outfile ?
                           $outfile : "STDOUT")});
    DEBUG "hey!";

[download]

In reply to Re: Swiching between output to file and STDOUT by saintmike
in thread Switching between output to file and STDOUT by loris

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