Update: You do realize 1: this code opens the file for read, not write and 2: If the file open is successful the else clause will be executed?

Sure - the filetests (-f in this case) work on filehandles as well as filenames.

if (-f $test) {
  print $test "It's a file";
}
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See perldoc perlfunc(search for -X) for more info on all the filetest operators.