use Data::Dumper; $Data::Dumper::Terse = 1; $Data::Dumper::Useqq = 1; print(Dumper($/)); # "\n" $_ = "abc\x0D\x0A"; print(Dumper($_)); # "abc\r\n" chomp; print(Dumper($_)); # "abc\r" #### >copy nul foo 1 file(s) copied. >copy nul bar 1 file(s) copied. >perl -e"opendir $dh, '.' or die; print readdir $dh" ...barfoo