picard:~ [10:35:09]$ perl -MFatal=open -e 'open F, ">", \$a'
picard:~ [10:35:11]$ ^>^>:raw
perl -MFatal=open -e 'open F, ">:raw", \$a'
picard:~ [10:35:34]$ ls SCALAR\(0x814fe04\)
SCALAR(0x814fe04)