perl file handle
 

whats the difference between

open (OLD, "< file")

open (NEW, "> file2")

One reads from the file, and one writes to it.
Specifically, open (OLD, "<file") opens it for reading only. ">" opens with write-ability (if the file you're working with allows you to write to it. If it doesn't, you may get an access error the first time you try to write to the file).

ok so what about this then

open (OLD, "file")

The file is open as read-only, '<' is not mandatory

try :
perldoc -f open

Or here:

http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/Perl/filehandling.html (The first result from google when searching on "Perl file open") :)

so this

open (OLD, "file")

is the same thing as this?

open (OLD, "<file")

Yep :)

thanks so much.