sub readcount {
  my $filename = shift;

  # If the file doesn't already exist, we will
  # simply return a count of 0 and let writecount()
  # create the file later on.
  open my $fh, "< $filename" or return 0;
  my $count = <$fh>;
  close $fh;

  return $count;
}

sub writecount {
  my $filename = shift;
  my $count    = shift;

  # If the file doesn't exist, this will create it.
  open my $fh, "> $filename" or die "Can't open $filename for write: $
+!\n";
  print $fh $count;
  close $fh;
}
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