My suggestion is not to do it that way. If you have control over the software that creates the post, then I suggest you port it to use a database (even if it's just the file-based DBD::SQLite2). If you include an auto-incrementing ID field (and you should anyhow), then the solution is simple: 

$sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT Author, DateTime, Message, ID FROM forum_
+posts ORDER BY ID DESC');
$sth->execute();

my $records = $sth->fetchall_arrayref( undef, 50 ); #only get 50 posts

for (@$records) { RenderMessage($_) }

[download]

Of course, if you don't have control of that forum software, then you'd have to write something to read the file that's created and insert the messages into the database, first. In that case, one of the other solutions (like the File::ReadBackwards one) might be more useful.

Still, there's no good reason not to use a database for this application, so maybe upgrading is a good idea... </code>

<–radiant.matrix–>
A collection of thoughts and links from the minds of geeks
The Code that can be seen is not the true Code
I haven't found a problem yet that can't be solved by a well-placed trebuchet

In reply to Re: Read file from bottom up by radiantmatrix
in thread Read file from bottom up by Zcity

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.