File::Slurp::read_dir from CPAN provides the same functionality as the opendir/readdir built-in combination. It also innately checks if the opendir failed. 
use File::Slurp qw(read_dir);
my @things = read_dir($dir, keep_dot_dot => 1);

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To assuage your platform-dependence fears, it seems to have good coverage according to the CPAN Testers "Perl/Platform Version Matrix".

In reply to Re: How to list all the things in a directory? by toolic
in thread How to list all the things in a directory? by szabgab

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