this:

close STDOUT;
close STDERR;

open ( FILE, ">>./testing.stdout" ) or die "$!\n\n";

print FILE "this\n";

system('ls') == 0 or print FILE "oops $!\n";

print "that\n";
[download]

results in:

this
DBVARS.main
getServername.pl
logs
nssswitch.pl
nssswitch.sh
testing.stdout
tryCloseSDTOUT.pl
[download]

I get why "that\n" doesn't print, but why does the system output appear in my file? Apparently, it's because it has nowhere else to go. My usual methods of investigation have turned up dry...