A file is just a bunch of bits. The way it is arranged in memory has nothing to do with the newline character. Any limits are arbitrarily imposed by outside applications. Perl, to my knowledge, would have no reason to care. Perl does not specifically care about lines either, they are only a string of data ended with whatever character is in $/. Scalar variables are limited only by memory, and have no problem with reading an entire file if you change $/. Just my two cents.

When's the last time you used duct tape on a duct? --Larry Wall

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.