File::Temp uses File::Spec use File::Temp; my $fh = tempfile; # temporary file is opened, in suitable directory print $fh $big_data; exit; # temporary file is automatically deleted. or, you can get a filename and a filehandle ($fh, $filename) = tempfile; By default, the second case does not delete temp file automatically because it was named. However these defaults can be changed with various options: ($fh, $filename) = tempfile($template); ($fh, $filename) = tempfile($template, SUFFIX => $suffix) ($fh, $filename) = tempfile($template, UNLINK => 1); template is of format: 'tempXXXXX' and Xs are replaced with random characters.