3.2.168 syswrite

syswrite FILEHANDLE, SCALAR, LENGTH, OFFSET
syswrite FILEHANDLE, SCALAR, LENGTH

This function attempts to write LENGTH bytes of data from variable SCALAR to the specified FILEHANDLE using write(2). The function returns the number of bytes actually written, or the undefined value on error. You should be prepared to handle the problems that standard I/O normally handles for you, such as partial writes. The OFFSET, if specified, says where in the string to start writing from, in case you're using the string as a buffer, for instance, or you need to recover from a partial write. To copy data from filehandle FROM into filehandle TO, use something like:

$blksize = (stat FROM)[11] || 16384;  # preferred block size?
while ($len = sysread FROM, $buf, $blksize) {
    if (!defined $len) {
        next if $! =~ /^Interrupted/;
        die "System read error: $!\n";
    }
    $offset = 0;
    while ($len) {          # Handle partial writes.
        $written = syswrite TO, $buf, $len, $offset;
        die "System write error: $!\n"
            unless defined $written;
        $len -= $written;
        $offset += $written;
    }
}

Do not mix calls to (print or write) and syswrite on the same filehandle unless you are into heavy wizardry.