in reply to perl -pi -e s'/^\s+//'g $file

Another Monk said 'that's why we have subroutines'. I'll add to that and say, that is why we have libraries and modules: 
perl -MMyPersonalFancyModule -e 'print qq|RTFM| x 99;'

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Celebrate Intellectual Diversity

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom