=over =item HANDLE->input_line_number(EXPR) =item $INPUT_LINE_NUMBER =item $NR =item $. Current line number for the last filehandle accessed. Each filehandle in Perl counts the number of lines that have been read from it. (Depending on the value of C<$/>, Perl's idea of what constitutes a line may not match yours.) When a line is read from a filehandle (via readline() or C<< <> >>), or when tell() or seek() is called on it, C<$.> becomes an alias to the line counter for that filehandle. You can adjust the counter by assigning to C<$.>, but this will not actually move the seek pointer. I will not localize the filehandle's line count>. Instead, it will localize perl's notion of which filehandle C<$.> is currently aliased to. C<$.> is reset when the filehandle is closed, but B when an open filehandle is reopened without an intervening close(). For more details, see LO Operators">. Because C<< <> >> never does an explicit close, line numbers increase across ARGV files (but see examples in L). You can also use C<< HANDLE->input_line_number(EXPR) >> to access the line counter for a given filehandle without having to worry about which handle you last accessed. (Mnemonic: many programs use "." to mean the current line number.) =back