When referenced, $! retrieves the current value of the C errno integer variable. If $! is assigned a numerical value, that value is stored in errno. When referenced as a string, $! yields the system error string corresponding to errno.
Many system or library calls set errno if they fail, to indicate the cause of failure. They usually do not set errno to zero if they succeed. This means errno, hence $!, is meaningful only immediately after a failure:
if (open my $fh, "<", $filename) {
# Here $! is meaningless.
...
}
else {
# ONLY here is $! meaningful.
...
# Already here $! might be meaningless.
}
# Since here we might have either success or failure,
# $! is meaningless.Here, meaningless means that $! may be unrelated to the outcome of the open() operator. Assignment to $! is similarly ephemeral. It can be used immediately before invoking the die() operator, to set the exit value, or to inspect the system error string corresponding to error n, or to restore $! to a meaningful state.
Mnemonic: What just went bang?