you can set up a small test: eg
where "file" doesn't exist...
here's my output:

From Perl docs ( http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html )

"Logical or and Exclusive Or

Binary "or" returns the logical disjunction of the two surrounding expressions. It's equivalent to || except for the very low precedence. This makes it useful for control flow

print FH $data or die "Can't write to FH: $!";

This means that it short-circuits: i.e., the right expression is evaluated only if the left expression is false. Due to its precedence, you should probably avoid using this for assignment, only for control flow.

$a = $b or $c; # bug: this is wrong
($a = $b) or $c; # really means this
$a = $b || $c; # better written this way

However, when it's a list-context assignment and you're trying to use "||" for control flow, you probably need "or" so that the assignment takes higher precedence.

@info = stat($file) || die; # oops, scalar sense of stat!
@info = stat($file) or die; # better, now @info gets its due

Then again, you could always use parentheses. "

See last 2 examples here.

Edit: re ghostdog's example above, I always use something like
... or print "Cannot open file <filename>: $!\n";
where $! is perl's built-in error code marker/special var (auto translates to error msg)