------------from perlvar---------
input_record_separator HANDLE EXPR

$INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR

$RS

$/

The input record separator, newline by default. This influences Perl's
+ idea of what a ``line'' is. Works like awk's RS variable, including 
+treating empty lines as a terminator if set to the null string. (An e
+mpty line cannot contain any spaces or tabs.) You may set it to a mul
+ti-character string to match a multi-character terminator, or to unde
+f to read through the end of file. Setting it to "\n\n" means somethi
+ng slightly different than setting to "", if the file contains consec
+utive empty lines. Setting to "" will treat two or more consecutive e
+mpty lines as a single empty line. Setting to "\n\n" will blindly ass
+ume that the next input character belongs to the next paragraph, even
+ if it's a newline. (Mnemonic: / delimits line boundaries when quotin
+g poetry.) 
    undef $/;           # enable "slurp" mode
    $_ = <FH>;          # whole file now here
    s/\n[ \t]+/ /g;
Remember: the value of $/ is a string, not a regex. awk has to be bett
+er for something. :-)

Setting $/ to a reference to an integer, scalar containing an integer,
+ or scalar that's convertible to an integer will attempt to read reco
+rds instead of lines, with the maximum record size being the referenc
+ed integer. So this:

    $/ = \32768; # or \"32768", or \$var_containing_32768
    open(FILE, $myfile);
    $_ = <FILE>;
will read a record of no more than 32768 bytes from FILE. If you're no
+t reading from a record-oriented file (or your OS doesn't have record
+-oriented files), then you'll likely get a full chunk of data with ev
+ery read. If a record is larger than the record size you've set, you'
+ll get the record back in pieces.

On VMS, record reads are done with the equivalent of sysread, so it's 
+best not to mix record and non-record reads on the same file. (This i
+s unlikely to be a problem, because any file you'd want to read in re
+cord mode is probably unusable in line mode.) Non-VMS systems do norm
+al I/O, so it's safe to mix record and non-record reads of a file.
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                                                      - crazyinsomniac