 LINE:
                while (<>) {
                    ...             # your program goes here
                } continue {
                    print or die "-p destination: $!\n";
                }

##</code><code>##

perl -pi -e'BEGIN{$HEAD=shift@ARGV;open(HEAD);$main::head=<HEAD>}$_=$main::head.$_ if $.==1' header-file file-to-be-edited
##</code><code>##

perl -e'($HEAD,$FILE)=@ARGV;open(HEAD);open(FILE);open($f,">$FILE.$$");print $f scalar <HEAD>,<FILE>;rename "$FILE.$$","$FILE"' header-file file-to-be-edited