If you willfully ignore all warnings and meaningful return values, then of course you should expect to have inherently buggy code:

% perl -Mautodie /tmp/buggy
Name "main::OUTPUT_FILE" used only once: possible typo at /tmp/buggy l
+ine 16.
Can't close filehandle 'OUTPUT_FH': 'Bad file descriptor' at /tmp/bugg
+y line 19
[download]

Did you somehow expect something else? Perl gives you the tools to diagnose and debug such buggery. Do not blame Perl if you ignore its prudent advice.

PROOF: Lexicals Filehandles Aren’t

I have a problem with this whole “lexical filehandle” folderol. That problem is that the name does not fit the thing.

• This is not a lexical filehandle:

  use vars qw($fh);
  undef $fh;
  open($fh, "> /tmp/data.$$")
      || die "can't open /tmp/data.$$: $!");
  print $fh "I am so NOT a lexical filehandle.\n";
  close($fh)
      || die "can't close /tmp/data.$$: $!";
  [download]

• This is a lexical filehandle:

  my $fh = *STDOUT;
  print $fh "I am SO TOO lexical filehandle.\n";
  [download]

I therefore submit that the thing you are talking about is not “lexical filehandles”, and to call them what they are not is to risk introduction of bugs in one’s mental model.

I believe what you are referring to is not “lexical handles”, but instead autovivified anonymous handles, which may — or may not —happen to be stored in lexical variables.

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