That seems rather pointless. What will 'tell' do for you in this case that "open ... or die" doesn't? If Perl is able to assign that filehandle, it succeeds; if it's not, then it fails. The only thing I can even imagine making a difference is if the file is deleted between the 'open' and the 'tell' calls.

-- 
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
 -- W. B. Yeats