I see no mention to Tie::File. With this module, you can use your file as a Perl array.

use Tie::File;
tie @array, 'Tie::File', $filename or die $!;
print $array[-1];
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But remember: this will open your file in read/write mode, so any modifications you make in array will reflect on file's data. Use this way for read-only access:

use Tie::File;
use Fcntl 'O_RDONLY';
tie @array, 'Tie::File', $filename, mode => O_RDONLY
    or die $!;
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