>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $filename = 'text';
 open my $fh, '<', $filename or die qq{opening '$filename': $!};
 ;;
 print qq{\$. initially: }, defined $. ? qq{'$.'} : 'undefined';
 ;;
 while (<$fh>) {
   chomp;
   print qq{$.: '$_'};
   }
 ;;
 close $fh or die qq{closing '$filename': $!};
"
$. initially: undefined
1: 'now is the time'
2: 'foo bar baz'
3: 'how now brown cow'
4: 'four score and seven'