Here are some examples of mine from recent programs. Those without error checking are operating under the use autodie pragma.

rename:     unless (open(TTYIN, "</dev/tty") && open(TTYOUT,">/dev/tty
+")) { ... }

tcgrep:     no strict "refs";
tcgrep:     # use same handlename as filehandle for better warn/die me
+ssages
tcgrep:     unless (open($file, $file)) { ... }

unichars:   open(STDOUT, "|- :utf8", $his_pager, @pager_args);

unilook:    # can't do this many arguments in old perls
unilook:    if ($] >= 5.013_000) {
unilook:        open($look_fh, "-| :utf8", $lookpath, $look_word,  $DB
+_Name,   );
unilook:    } else {
unilook:        open($look_fh,            "$lookpath '$look_word' '$DB
+_Name' |");
unilook:        binmode($look_fh, ":utf8");
unilook:    }

unilook:    open(my $raw_db, "< :utf8", $DB_Name);

unilook:    open($agrep_fh, $arg_string);

unilook:    open(STDOUT, "|- :utf8", $his_pager);

uninames~:      my $unistd    = "$Config{privlib}/unicore/NamesList.tx
+t";
uninames~:    my $mode_in   = "< :encoding(Latin-1)",
uninames~:    my $mode_out  =   ":utf8";
uninames~:    open(my $fh, $mode_in, $unistd)     
uninames~:       || die "can't open $mode_in '$unistd': $!";

uninames:   open(STDOUT, "| $pager")
uninames:       || die "can't open STDOUT to $pager pipe: $!";

uniprops:   open(my $pod_fh, "< $unipod")
uniprops:       || die "can't open $unipod: $!";
uniprops:   open(STDOUT, "| $pager")
uniprops:       || die "can't open pipe to $pager: $!";
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    unshift(@ARGV, "-") if @ARGV == 0;
FILE: 
    for my $quasi_filename (@ARGV) {
        # don't let magic open make an output handle
        my $file = $quasi_filename;
        $file = "standard input" if $file eq q(-);

        debug("opening $file");

        $quasi_filename =~ s/^(?=[\h\v]*[>|])/< /;

    # Down the rabbit hole: I'm using filehandle names that match
    # the handles themselves to aid in debugging message. Silly
    # perl thinks this is somehow symbolic dereferencing.

        no strict "refs";
        my $fh = $file;   # is *so* a lexical filehandle!!! 
        unless (open($fh, $quasi_filename)) {
            yuck("couldn't open $quasi_filename: $!");
            next FILE;
        }
        set_encoding($fh, $file) || next FILE;

LINE:   for(;;) {
            my $line = eval {
                use warnings "FATAL" => "all";
                scalar <$fh>;
            };
            if ($@) {
                $@ =~ s/ at \K.*? line \d+.*/$file line $./;
                yuck("read failure: $@");
                if ($. == 0) { last LINE }
                else         { next LINE }
            }

            last LINE unless defined $line;
            last LINE unless length $line;

        ...
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