...only works if your system supports chmod on file handles in general (i.e. it supports fchmod).

While this is technically correct, it's almost certainly irrelevant, as the OP is using Linux, and fchmod was introduced with kernel 0.96a almost two decades ago (when the entire kernel source tarball was just 200k).

Rather, the problem is with older versions of Perl.  For example, when I strace a test script running under 5.8.4, I'm getting 

chmod("*main::OUT", 0444)               = -1 ENOENT (No such file or d
+irectory)

[download]

for "chmod 0444, *OUT", and something like 

chmod("GLOB(0x602210)", 0444)           = -1 ENOENT (No such file or d
+irectory)

[download]

for "chmod 0444, $OUT",  while newer versions of Perl in both cases correctly do 

fchmod(4, 0444)                         = 0

[download]

In other words, older versions simply passed the stringified handle to the chmod system call...

The OP's case definitely works with 5.8.8 (and newer), though.

In reply to Re^2: Why doesn't chmod work on this lexical filehandle? by Anonyrnous Monk
in thread Why doesn't chmod work on this lexical filehandle? by williff

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