No, you _can_ just send the vars to STDOUT, which is how CGI/HTML data is sent normally.

But are you writing this into a HTML file, or using it as a CGI app? If the former, you need to use the Filehandle module or a similar statement as you list, and you must specify a actual filename to send it to, as others have alreayd mentioned (the file does not have to exist, but it will by the time you write to it). If it's straight CGI to a browser, then you don't need any of the file stuff, just print and the rest'll be taken care of.

Perhaps you should give us more detail in a comment below, so that we can properly help you.

----Asim, known to some as Woodrow.