How do I read the contents of a small text file into a scalar in Perl?

Question

I have a small text file that I\'d like to read into a scalar variable exactly as it is in the file (preserving line separators and other whitespace).

The equivalent

Answer 1

Just join all lines together into a string:

open(F, $file) or die $!;
my $content = join("", <F>); 
close F;

(It was previously suggested to use join "\n" but that will add extra newlines. Each line already has a newline at its end when it's read.)

Answer 2

There is a discussion of the various ways to read a file here.