Help slurping a file?

Hi,
I'm not sure if this is the correct group to post this question to. If there
is a better forum for this kind of question, please let me know.

I am trying to slurp a file that was written on Mac OSX, using a standard
text editor.
I am developing on a windows machine, and running my scripts on a Linux box.
I get the same problem on both machines.

If I set the local($\ = "\r")
I can get a line by line read of the file.
However, if I set the
local($\=undef)
or
local($\="")
The script will only read in the first line of the file, and then quit.
I got a read of the byte code in java, and the endline character is indeed
"\r".
My question is, why can't I slurp in the entire file?

Below is a sample of my code:


#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use warnings;

my $file = "pathnameofmyfile";

open( MYFILE, "$file" ) or die "Can't open $file for reading: $!\n";

 readfile();
close(MYFILE);

sub readfile(){
local($/) = "\r";

while ( my $line = <MYFILE> ){

print "line is $line\n";

}
 }



Renee Halbrook
Bioinformatics Programmer
The Carnegie Institution of Washington
Department of Plant Biology
260 Panama Street
Stanford, CA 94305