#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Socket;
my ($remote, $port, $iaddr, $paddr, $proto, $line);

$remote  = shift || "localhost";
$port    = shift || 2345;  # random port
if ($port =~ /\D/) { $port = getservbyname($port, "tcp") }
die "No port" unless $port;
$iaddr   = inet_aton($remote)       || die "no host: $remote";
$paddr   = sockaddr_in($port, $iaddr);

$proto   = getprotobyname("tcp");
socket(SOCK, PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, $proto)  || die "socket: $!";
connect(SOCK, $paddr)               || die "connect: $!";
binmode SOCK or die "binmode $!"; ## no effect on client side
while ($line = <SOCK>) {
    my $length = length $line;
    print "($length)$line";
}
close (SOCK)                        || die "close: $!";
exit(0);

__END__
$ perl client.pl
(65)(59+6)Hello there, localhost, it's now Wed Sep 14 03:53:10 2011
(21)(15+6)backslash \n__
(22)(16+6)backslash \r\n
(22)(16+6)backslash EOL_