Reading from a dot file in current directory, OR from a system wide one, OR warning if neither exists.  No need to explicitly skip the loop if the  opens fail, since <FH> will return false straight away ...

Code:

open (FH,".myrc")       or open (FH,"/etc/myrc")            or warn("Using fallbacks\n"); while ($initline = <FH>) {

By the way

a) Files with names starting with a period (.) are silent or hidden files on Unix or Linux systems, only shown if you use an option such as -a to your ls command.   They will not be matched if you start an operating system command with a * (you must be specific about the .)  or Perl's glob function, but they will be returned to you by readdir.

b) rc stands for "runtime commands" if you wondered ... traditional, these are configuration files read by applications as they start up at run time - options not compiled into the executable.

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