$ perl -e 'open F, "|cat>test" or die("cant open"); print F "\x03"; close F'
$ hexdump -C test
00000000  03                                                |.|
00000001

##</code><code>##

$ perl -e '$SIG{INT} = sub { die "Got signal" }; while() {};'
[Press CTRL+C]
Got signal at -e line 1.