Given all the gloomy responses above, you won't believe how simple this is with Tie::File, but just try it.

use strict;
use warnings;
use Tie::File;

tie my @records, 'Tie::File', 'file.txt';
shift @records;

[download]

Update: Thanks are due to BrowserUK for the benchmark below.

It's a beautiful example of a tradeoff between machine time and the time of

Further thought: The read-seek-write solution belongs in Tie::File under the fixed-record-length option that Dominus has listed as TO DO. Then the rest of us could enjoy the best of both worlds.

In reply to Re: Removing the first record in a file containing fixed records by Narveson
in thread Removing the first record in a file containing fixed records by sparkle

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