If so, something like:

my $filedata = myfunction();
if (defined $filedata) {
   print FILEHANDLE $filedata;
} else {
   # handle error...
}
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I think you are confusing the meaning of copying filehandles with that of copying the contents from one file to another.

I am guessing that it is the latter that you really want. I assume that myfunction returns either an open read handle or undef. In this case, you can do something like

my $in = myfunction();
if ( $in ) {
  print FILEHANDLE while <$in>;
}
else {
  # handle null-handle error;
}
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how would i return an open filehandle through a functon? aren't you supposed to send the contents of the file?

Both are possible; it all depends what you want to do. Here's a function that returns an open read handle:

sub rh {
  my $filename = shift;
  open my $in, '<', $filename
    or die "Couldn't open $filename for reading: $!\n";
  return $in;
}

my $in = rh( 'somefile.txt' );
print while <$in>;
[download]

If your myfunction returns the contents of a file, then see ysth's reply.

the lowliest monk