You want something like the following:

while (1) {
    while (<FILE>) {
        # do something here
    }
    sleep $for_a_while;
    seek( FILE, 0, 1 );
}
[download]

The seek above convinces Perl that you're no longer at the EOF, thus allowing you to continuously read from your file as new lines are added.

However, the real problem is: what's wrong with using a module? If it's reliable and tested, so what?

Cheers,
Ovid

Join the Perlmonks Setiathome Group or just click on the the link and check out our stats.