http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=131109


in reply to Re (tilly) 1: Two-arg open() considered dangerous
in thread Two-arg open() considered dangerous

I agree that three-arg open is a bit new to depend on, but sysopen may not be inconvenient. Specifically, it's guaranteed{1} that O_RDONLY, O_WRONLY, and O_RDWR have the values zero, one, and two, respectively. So sysopen FOO, $file, 0 should work everywhere in the known universe.

{1} This is OK to count on because the C function open() originates with Unix, and for backwards compatibility with ancient UNIX code, the second parameter of open() must accept zero/one/two.

    -- Chip Salzenberg, Free-Floating Agent of Chaos