A few (nit-picking) comments about general coding style (your program wil work OK without applying them, but in larger and more complicated programs, it can make a difference):

• Use single quotes whereever possible rather than double quotes. This will save you from the effects of unwanted interpolation.
• Use lexical file-handles and surround your file operations with the smalles scope possible (a loop, a block, ...). The handles will close automatically when you leave the scope.
• Use the three argument form of open, it is safer than the two argument form.

One final comment: after running your program, you now have an unneccessary "temporary" preferences.tmp file in your system. Perhaps you can have a look at File::Temp that can be used to create and open temporary files in a safe way and these temporary files can be made to disappear automatically once your program finishes.

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