Note that if you intend to redirect to an in-memory variable (Perl 5.8.x) you have to close STDOUT first; from perldoc -f open:

File handles can be opened to "in memory" files held in Perl scalars via:

    open($fh, '>', \$variable) || ..
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Though if you try to re-open "STDOUT" or "STDERR" as an "in memory" file, you have to close it first:

    close STDOUT;
    open STDOUT, '>', \$variable or die "Can't open STDOUT: $!";
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