use autodie; my $filename = 'foo:bar.txt'; if ($ARGV[0]) { say "Skipping write."; } else { say "Writing $filename. Run $0 -skip to skip writing."; open my $fh, '>', $filename; say $fh 'Test text'; close $fh; } open my $read, '<', $filename; print "$filename: ' . <$read>; close $read; __END__ Test text