While i do appreciate wanting to learn the intricacies of a particular tool, in this case i'd just get a different tool. Tie::File 

use strict;
use warnings;
use Tie::File;

tie my @file, 'Tie::File', 'messageTest.txt' or die "can't open\n";

my $MAX = 5;

if (@file > $MAX) {
    @file = @file[0 .. $MAX - 1];
    unshift @file, "new line";
}

[download]
Tie::File even has built-in flocking.

Thanks to Corion for alerting me that i linked to File::Array ... oops :)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

In reply to Re: lack an adequate understanding of (at least) the seek function by jeffa
in thread lack an adequate understanding of (at least) the seek function by o2bwise

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