I do need that array... Maybe what I'll do is read buffered, but write using syswrite. All I'd have to do then is replace:-

    open DF,">test.txt";
    print DF @test;
    close DF;
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with:-

    sysopen(DF,"test.txt", O_WRONLY | O_CREAT);
    syswrite DF,join('', @test);
    close DF;
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At least then the IO Processes for writing are down to 1!