my @fields; my $bits = unpack('B*', $input); while ($bits) { die if length($bits) < 8; my $num_bits = unpack('C', pack('B*', substr($bits, 0, 8, ''))); my $field = substr($bits, 0, $num_bits, ''); push @fields, $field; } #### use Config qw( ); use constant UV_BITS => $Config::Config{uvsize} * 8; die if $num_bits > UV_BITS; push @fields, pack('B*', substr(("0" x UV_BITS).$field, -UV_BITS));