I have the strangest problem I've seen so far in Perl. Please let someone explain what is going wrong here:

The case is simple. I have a file to upload via HTTP (you know: upload button, use CGI and get the file). I've rewritten the original script to this: 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use CGI;
$|=1;
my $buffer;
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print "<html><body>";
my $req = CGI->new;
my $filename = $req->param("filename");
$filename =~ m/(.*?$CGI::SL)*(.*)(?=$)/;
my $localfilename = "$2";
open(FILE, ">$localfilename") || print "Could not open $localfilename 
+for output: $!<br>\n";
while (my $bytesread = read($filename,$buffer,1024))
{
    print FILE $buffer;
}
close(FILE);
print "File saved as $localfilename (original filename=$filename)<br>"
+;
print "</body></html>";

[download]
the HTML file looks like this (most simple form of course)
<html>
<body>
<form method=POST encoding="multipart/form-data" action="http://blur/n
+ewtest.cgi">
<table border=1>
<tr><td>Filename: </td><td><input type=file name="filename"></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><input type=submit></td></tr>
</table>
</form>
</body>
</html>

[download]
When I run this code and select any file, the moment the 'open' is called, the value of $localfilename is erased. Originally I used FileHandle but to make sure the error wasn't in that module, I replaced it with the plain open statement.

Now the strange part: when I leave out the use strict; everything works fine and the value of $localfilename is preserved.

I'm at a new job here, and everyone here tells me 'use strict' is no good, and I'm trying to convince them of the opposite, 'cause I always use it, and really believe anyone should use it, but this is making my statement a bit hard to defend....

Jouke Visser, Perl 'Adept'

In reply to Bug in 'strict'?? by Jouke

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