Re: Program unsuspectingly dies with no reason why.

[starX]

It might have something to do with the line &clean_the_file(); The & denotes a function reference, but you're not calling the function via a reference. If you use clean_the_file(); I think it'll take care of the issue.

Update: Never mind, I'm a loser.

[Fletch]

Errm, no. Something like \&clean_the_file would be a reference. While calling subs with the leading sigil does have an effect, it's not going to stop &clean_the_file() from being called in any sane circumstance. See perlsub.

(Of course if someone has created just such a circumstance then they deserve what they get for using prototypes where they shouldn't :)

[kyle]

Actually, &foo() is a call to the sub foo. To take a reference to the sub, use \&foo.

sub foo { print "foo: ", $_[0], "\n" }

&foo( 'called with &' );
foo( 'called with no &' );

my $foo_ref = \&foo;
$foo_ref->( 'called via reference' );
&$foo_ref( 'called via & and reference' );
__END__
foo: called with &
foo: called with no &
foo: called via reference
foo: called via & and reference

The only special thing about &foo() vs. foo() is that the former will disable any prototypes the sub may have.