for ($i=0, @chunk = (); !eof(IN) && $i < 10; $i++) {
   $chunk[$i] = <IN>;
}

##</code><code>##

# Untested, but you get the idea

while (read(IN, $buf, 1024, length($buf))) {
   while ($buf =~ s/^([^\r\n]*)[\r\n]+//) {
      handle_line($1);
   }
}