Perl: function returns reference or copy?

Question

Im a newbie in perl. So the question might sound something naive.

I have two following functions

#This function will return the reference of the array
sub getFruits1
{
    my @fruits = ('apple', 'orange', 'grape');
    return \@fruits;
}

But in the following case?

#How it returns?
sub getFruits2
{
    my @fruits = ('apple', 'orange', 'grape');
    return @fruits;
}

Will getFruits2 return a reference and a new copy of that array will be created?

Answer 1

The getFruits2 subroutine returns a list, which can be assigned to a new array like this

my @newfruits = getFruits2();

And yes, it will produce a copy of the data in the array