You'd probably have better luck testing for the open() command's success use Getopts::Std; getopts("n"); if($opt_n){ open(OPT_LOG,">/tmp/foo.txt") || die "Could not open foo.txt!\n"; } -----Original Message----- From: eric-perl@pretorious.net [mailto:eric-perl@pretorious.net] Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 12:18 PM To: Beginners Perl Mailing List Subject: Testing for filehandles Hello, All: I've looked around for an answer to this (The Camel Book, The Ram Book, perldoc, google.com, etc.) but can't find a thing: Is it possible to test for the existence of a filehandle? I've got a small script that <optionally> opens a filehandle. If that filehandle exists, I'd like to print to it. Otherwise, don't. e.g., use Getopts::Std; getopts("n"); open(OPT_LOG,">/tmp/foo.txt") if ($opt_n); while (<>) { print OPT_LOG $_ if OPT_LOG; } close(OPT_LOG) if OPT_LOG; -- Eric P. Los Gatos, CA -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: beginners-unsubscribe@perl.org For additional commands, e-mail: beginners-help@perl.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and delete all copies.Thread Previous | Thread Next