ysth, you're correct, that it works fine if no errors occur.

But as soon as the file "./edit" doesn't exist, or doesn't have the correct permissions, you'll get a cryptic:

readline() on closed filehandle FL at C:\Documents and Settings\liverp
+ole\edit.pl line 13.
[download]

or something similar.  What's even worse is that, at least on my Windows box, the program doesn't terminate, forcing you to ^C to get out of it.

That's why I was suggesting the error-checking when opening files.