in reply to What specifically is the "file position"?
I was just wondering about thid the other day, similarly because I wanted to seek to the end of a file. It seems to me your original question has been answered, but note that
sysseek(FH,0,2)(and seek(FH,0,2)) will seek to the very end of the FH filehandle such that you can then append to it.
Tim
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Seekers of Perl Wisdom