From what I understand, local ($_); is roughly equivalent to: 
my $saved = $_;
$_ = undef;
...
$_ = $saved;

[download]
No, its actually equivalent to 
my $tmp;
my $old = \$_;
*_ = \$tmp;
...
*_ = \$old;

[download]
as can be seen from the following: 
$ perl -le '$x = 1; $r = \$x; local $x=2; print "$$r $x"'
1 2
$

[download]
In your example they both would have printed 2.

Dave.

In reply to Re^3: Understanding typeglobs and local() by dave_the_m
in thread Understanding typeglobs and local() by whio

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