#!/usr/local/perl/5.15.8/bin/perl -w

my $fname = "foo.utf16";

open my $out, ">:crlf:encoding(UTF-16LE)", $fname or die;
print $out "\x{feff}\x{1234}\n\x{5678}\n";

##</code><code>##

$ ./test-out.pl
$ hexdump foo.utf16 
0000000 feff 1234 0a0d 7800 0d56 000a          
000000c

##</code><code>##

$ hexdump foo.utf16 
0000000 feff 1234 000d 000a 5678 000d 000a     
000000e

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/local/perl/5.15.8/bin/perl -w
use Devel::Peek;

my $fname = "foo.utf16";

# create correct file, using the same old layer mantra
# (the extra :utf8 is only required with older perls)
open my $out, ">:raw:encoding(UTF-16LE):crlf:utf8", $fname or die;
print $out "\x{feff}\x{1234}\n\x{5678}\n";
close $out;

# read file back in
open my $in, "<:crlf:encoding(UTF-16LE)", $fname or die;
$/ = undef;
Dump <$in>;

##</code><code>##

$ ./test-in.pl
SV = PV(0x77dc60) at 0x953728
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (TEMP,POK,pPOK,UTF8)
  PV = 0x829130 "\357\273\277\341\210\264\r\n\345\231\270\r\n"\0 [UTF8 "\x{feff}\x{1234}\r\n\x{5678}\r\n"]
  CUR = 13                                ^               ^
  LEN = 14