localize the typeglob *STDOUT that contains the STDOUT filehandle within a block, then call your chatty code within the block:

{
    local *STDOUT;
    # call something that prints to STDOUT
}
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++chromatic , certainly localizing *STDOUT fixes the problem, but just to play devils advocate..., IS it possible to close STDOUT and re-open it again to the console?

print "Standard and Out\n";
close STDOUT;
open (STDOUT, ">>over.txt") or die "Screaming $!";
print "Over and Out\n";
close STDOUT;
open (STDOUT, ">>/dev/pts/0") or die "Can open console $!" #Ok so I ch
+eated and used `who` to find this
print  "Aye Aye Capt'n\n";
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Which of course is largely useless and redundant given your solution, plus I have NFI how to programatically determine which /dev to open


food for thought gives me indigestion

Surely what you want to do is to duplicate the STDOUT file handle to keep it out of the way. Then duplicate it back to STDOUT when you are done. Something like:

local(*SAVED_STDOUT);
open(SAVED_STDOUT,">&STDOUT");

...Mess with STDOUT...

close(STDOUT);
open(STDOUT,">&SAVED_STDOUT");
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Warning: I am not near a machine where I can check this at the moment, so this is probably not be accurate, look in your favourite O'Reilly book to get the real syntax.

update:Aha! chromatic nailed it (I'm still working on my typeglob skills...) -- here's a working example:

print "We are about to go into that ugly module...\n";
{
    local *STDOUT;
    open( STDOUT, ">/tmp/junk.stdout" );
    print "This goes to junk.stdout\n";
}
print "Okay, that mess is over with.\n";
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Instead of closing and opening STDOUT, you could use select as follows:

open(JUNK, ">junk.txt") or die;

print "this is going to stdout\n";

select JUNK;

print "this is going to junk\n";

select STDOUT;

print "this is again going to stdout\n";
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This way you can leave your filehandles open and switch whenever you need to with little effort.

HTH.

--
hiseldl
What time is it? It's Camel Time!

# Redirect STDOUT to your file
open(TMP, ">&STDOUT);
open(STDOUT, ">/tmp/out.tmp") or die "Can't open a temporary file: $!"
+;

# do something, all programm input will be redirected to your tmp
# file exept error messages of course.

# Restore STDOUT
open(STDOUT, ">&TMP");
close(TMP) or die "Can't close temporary file: $!";
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{ firstname => 'Michael',
  quote     => 'Mice were crying and stinging but went on nibbling the
+ cactus', }
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