$ strace perl -e'$|=0; print for "a", "b\n", "c\n"' >/dev/tty write(1, "ab\n", 3) = 3 write(1, "c\n", 2) = 2 $ strace perl -e'$|=0; print for "a", "b\n", "c\n"' >/dev/null write(1, "ab\nc\n", 5) = 5 $ strace perl -e'$|=1; print for "a", "b\n", "c\n"' write(1, "a", 1) = 1 write(1, "b\n", 2) = 2 write(1, "c\n", 2) = 2