Just as a heads-up, I expect Perl to issue a warning (or maybe even a fatal error, maybe with taint) in the future when it is told to open a file from a scalar containing a \0. This is under the assumption that most such usage is malicious, for example to circumvent naïve "filename" validation like the following:

# Read (malicious) filename from user, over the web:
$filename = "/etc/passwd\0.jpg";

# Verify it's a .jpg file:
$filename =~ /\.jpg$/ or return;

# Verify it exists:
-f $filename or return;

# Output the file to the user:
send_file( $filename );
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