Update: Scratching my head...

[spudzeppelin]

• Something is erasing the file after it is written.
  Maybe. It's the next angle to pursue I suppose. *grumble* I pretty well exhausted this one when I first learned of the problem... "Is the reaper functioning properly? etc."

News: This appears to be what's causing it. It doesn't appear as if the reaper itself is malfunctioning, it appears that the files are just *vanishing* surreptuously. Either way, it doesn't appear to be a perl problem....

Spud Zeppelin * [e-mail]