It would be great if you could include some of your code to look at; you'll find it helps a lot.
Otherwise, everybody (myself included) will probably suggest that you start using regular expressions to solve your tokenizing dilemma.
Update
Here's an example of code using that character you keep talking about. Lemme know if it solves your problem; otherwise post some code.
my $schtuff = "blah ENDOFLINE blah ENDOFLINE blah ENDOFLINE\n";
open my $DEADEND, ">schtuff.txt" or die 'try again';
{
print $DEADEND $schtuff;
}
close $DEADEND;
open my $moreSchtuff, "<schtuff.txt" or die $!;
{
local $/ = 'ENDOFLINE';
while (<$moreSchtuff>)
{
print $_ . "<-- SHAZAM! properly tokenized!\n";
}
}
close $moreSchtuff;
5.8.8 Output
blah ENDOFLINE<-- SHAZAM! properly tokenized!
blah ENDOFLINE<-- SHAZAM! properly tokenized!
blah ENDOFLINE<-- SHAZAM! properly tokenized!