Thanks for your reply. Typically, I've been using the open or die syntax, but other admins have asked that the code continue even when a file is missing. Though I didn't post the surrounding code, it gracefully handles a null return value for the function.

I haven't looked at the open command in a while, so I haven't had any experience with the three-argument version. I have been using the strict pragma and tainting input (out of habit, from when I first started learning Perl with HTML.

I guess I haven't checked on it to see if there's a better way to do things now. Thanks, I'll check it out.