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in reply to A Few Questions About IO::File

From ??? up to 5.12, file handles were objects of IO::Handle (unless you reblessed them). You needed to load IO::Handle or IO::File yourself if you want to use its methods.

From 5.12 up to 5.14, file handles were objects of IO::File (unless you reblessed them). You needed to load IO::Handle or IO::File yourself if you want to use its methods.

From 5.14 on, file handles are objects of IO::File (unless you reblessed them). IO::Handle and IO::File are automatically loaded on demand.

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