You're right - I should have included version information right away. Here it is, just for the sake of completeness (because my question has been answered already): I'm running perl 5.6.1 under RedHat linux.

And here's the perl -V dump:

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5.0 version 6 subversion 1) configuratio
+n:
  Platform:
    osname=linux, osvers=2.4.9, archname=i686-linux
    uname='linux zeus.sail-labs.at 2.4.9 #5 smp tue aug 28 15:24:44 ce
+st 2001 i686 unknown '
    config_args=''
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=undef use5005threads=undef useithreads=undef usemultipl
+icity=undef
    useperlio=undef d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=undef use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', ccflags ='-fno-strict-aliasing -I/usr/local/include -D_LA
+RGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64',
    optimize='-O2',
    cppflags='-fno-strict-aliasing -I/usr/local/include'
    ccversion='', gccversion='2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.1 2.96-81
+)', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=1234
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=1
+2
    ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t',
+ lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=4, usemymalloc=n, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib'
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib
    libs=-lnsl -lndbm -lgdbm -ldl -lm -lc -lcrypt -lutil
    perllibs=-lnsl -ldl -lm -lc -lcrypt -lutil
    libc=/lib/libc-2.2.2.so, so=so, useshrplib=false, libperl=libperl.
+a
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-rdynami
+c'
    cccdlflags='-fpic', lddlflags='-shared -L/usr/local/lib'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl): 
  Compile-time options: USE_LARGE_FILES
  Built under linux
  Compiled at Sep  3 2001 21:32:42
  %ENV:
    PERL5LIB=".:/home/robert/:/rnr/rnr_tools/:/rnr/rnr_train/bin/"
    PERLLIB="/home/robert/:/rnr/rnr_tools/:/rnr/rnr_train/bin/"
    PERLTEST_ROOT="/home/robert/start/perltest"
    PERL_MODLIB="/home/robert/:/home/robert/:/home/robert/:/rnr/rnr_to
+ols"
  @INC:
    .
    /home/robert/
    /rnr/rnr_tools/
    /rnr/rnr_train/bin/
    /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1/i686-linux
    /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/i686-linux
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl
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