zsh: operation not permitted when running Perl script

The first line in my script is correct. As I said, the script has worked for a long time. I didn't change anything.

The script works when I run it as "perl script.pl", so there is no module issue. The problem is that it won't run when I type "./script.pl", and it had previously worked.

This script worked:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

print "Hello world\n";

I don't have anything fancy in my script. It just reads some files, and it works fine if I pass the script name as an argument to Perl... :-(

The error was:

"zsh: operation not permitted"

And as I stated, the execute bit was set. The script has worked, unchanged, for a couple of years.

It is now working...

After successfully running the "Hello world" script, I put "Hello world" and an exit statement as the first two lines in my failing script. It worked.

I removed the "Hello world" and exit statement, and now the script runs normally. I'm at a loss as to why it didn't work previously. I hadn't edited the script since my upgrade to Big Sur. I don't know why an edit would fix it, but I guess I shouldn't complain.

Many thanks for the suggestions.

I appreciate the suggestions. Had I not asked my question here, I'd have kept on trying to find a macOS problem.

Successfully running the "toy" script showed me that the problem was somehow with my bigger script and not a zsh or Terminal issue. I don't know why just editing the file caused it to work again...