After reading the great article on file locking I found here, I am trying to open a file, flock it, read it and then write to it. I am trying to do both the read and write under one flock so that there is no possiblility of someone opening the file between the read and write. I have cut the code down to show the intent. I also know that, or think that, when opening the file with the +>, the file will be overwritten when I do the print thing? Anyway, I really appreciate any help on this. The following works fine:

open(INFILE, "file.htm");
flock(INFILE, 1);
@lines=<INFILE>;
close(INFILE);

open(OUTFILE, "+>$file.htm");
flock(OUTFILE, 2);
print OUTFILE "stuff";
close(OUTFILE);
[download]

The following does NOT work

open(OUTFILE, ">$file.htm");
flock(OUTFILE, 2);
@lines=<OUTFILE>;
print OUTFILE "stuff";
close(OUTFILE);
[download]

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