#!/usr/bin perl use strict; use warnings; my $name = 'junk'; open my $fh, '>', $name or die "Open fail: $!"; print $fh 'some content'; close $fh; file_handler($name); sub threeYrExpiration($) { my $abs_filename = $_[0]; my $unlinkStatus = unlink("$abs_filename"); if ($unlinkStatus == 1) { warn "Success"; } else { warn "Fail"; } } sub file_handler { my ($abs_filename) = @_; threeYrExpiration($abs_filename); }