fcntl FILEHANDLE,FUNCTION,SCALAR Implements the fcntl(2) function. You'll probably have to say use Fcntl; first to get the correct constant definitions. Argument processing and value returned work just like "ioctl" below. For example: use Fcntl; fcntl($filehandle, F_GETFL, $packed_return_buffer) or die "can't fcntl F_GETFL: $!"; You don't have to check for "defined" on the return from "fcntl". Like "ioctl", it maps a 0 return from the system call into "0 but true" in Perl. This string is true in boolean context and 0 in numeric context. It is also exempt from the normal -w warnings on improper numeric conversions. Note that "fcntl" raises an exception if used on a machine that doesn't implement fcntl(2). See the Fcntl module or your fcntl(2) manpage to learn what functions are available on your system. Here's an example of setting a filehandle named "REMOTE" to be non-blocking at the system level. You'll have to negotiate $| on your own, though. use Fcntl qw(F_GETFL F_SETFL O_NONBLOCK); $flags = fcntl(REMOTE, F_GETFL, 0) or die "Can't get flags for the socket: $!\n"; $flags = fcntl(REMOTE, F_SETFL, $flags | O_NONBLOCK) or die "Can't set flags for the socket: $!\n"; Portability issues: "fcntl" in perlport.