I wrote Win32::Fmode to address that very problem. (and syphilis wrapped it over in what he considers a more user-friendly API in FileHandle::Fmode)

Thanks! I missed that. All I found was Win32API::File, which exposes file attributes, but not the filehandle ones.

PPM makes it simple. Far simpler than installing pure perl modules on *nix in fact.

Good to know. I won't shy away from using XS then.

Thanks again.