in reply to why does open ">..." sometimes touches the directory?
In Linux '>' redirect symbol is used to create new file, if the file exists it removes the existing content and creates new file.
Use Three-argument open(), to open a file its safer open my $fh, '>', $filename or die "Can't write to '$filename': $!\n"; Update:
Shorthand Flags:
Entities Definition< or r Read Only Access
> or w Creates, Writes, and Truncates
>> or a Writes, Appends, and Creates +< or r+ Reads and Writes
+> or w+ Reads, Writes, Creates, and Truncates
+>> or a+ Reads, Writes, Appends, and Creates
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