my $bytes_read = $socket->sysread($buf, $max_read_len);

if (not defined $bytes_read)
{
    print "ack!  error on the socket\n";
}
elsif ($bytes_read == 0)
{
    print "the socket was closed\n";
}
else
{
    print "woo hoo!  I read $bytes_read bytes from the socket...\n";
}