Here's another version:

sub readfile {
  local $/="" unless wantarray;
  return open(FS, shift) ? <FS> : undef;
}
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No 'my' variables, handles both string and array requests, and returns undef if the file could not be opened. Use it like this:

defined($slurp = &readfile($file)) or die "Could not open $file: $!\n"
+;
print "Scalar 'slurp' now has ", length $slurp, " characters in it\n";
defined(@slurp = &readfile($file)) or die "Could not open $file: $!\n"
+;
print "Array 'slurp' now has ", $#slurp, " elements in it.\n";
[download]