Your code is a little odd, but it should work.  Are you running it in the directory "oldnames" or in the directory above it?  You should be in the directory above it.  A more standard way of writing it would be like this:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict; use warnings;

my $dir = 'oldnames';
opendir ( my $oldnames, $dir) or die "cannot open dir $dir: $!";
my @file = readdir $oldnames;
closedir $oldnames;

print "@file\n";


This would populate @files with all the files in oldnames, including '.' and '..'.  You might need to filter those out depending on how you do your renaming.

uniquely rename each of many files using perl
In answer to this question, there was some discussion about whether these two sentences are equivalent:


  Art nurtures the soul.
  The arts nurture the soul.


Are they equivalent?  

'The arts' is a common but woolly term and 'art' is notoriously difficult to pin down.  Oxforddictionaries.com gives the following definitions:


  
  art [mass noun] the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power  
  (the arts) the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance
  


What practical differences in usage are there (if any)?

Also, does Art (capital A) have a special meaning distinct from art (lower case a)?  
