=-> cat test.pl
my($plaintext,$html);
$plaintext = ">> foo";
pipe(READ, WRITE);
print "about to open\n";
open WRITE, "| cat";
print WRITE $plaintext;
print "\njust wrote\n";
close WRITE;
print "\nclosed\n";
{ local $/; $html = ; }
close READ;
print "\njust read\n";
print "\$html: $html\n"
=-> perl test.pl
about to open
just wrote
>> foo
closed
just read
$html: