#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use feature qw{ say }; unlink "./log.txt" or warn "$!"; open OUT, '>>', 'log.txt' or die $!; if (0){ # as you like my $previous_default = select(OUT); # save previous default $|++; # autoflush OUT select($previous_default); # restore previous default } else { #use PerlIO; # needed for Perl <5.14 OUT->autoflush(); } print OUT "before close"; open IN, '<', 'log.txt' or die $!; my $read; $read = ; chomp $read; say "Before close: <$read>"; close OUT;