Here is one way:

    #!/usr/bin/perl -wl

    use strict;

    my %esc = (
               '\0' => "\0",
               '\a' => "\a",
               '\b' => "\b",
               '\t' => "\t",
               '\n' => "\n",
               '\v' => "\013",
               '\f' => "\f",
               '\r' => "\r",
              );


    my $literal = 'aaa\tbbb\nccc\tddd\t\\\\end';

    (my $escaped = $literal) =~ s/(\\.)/exists $esc{$1} ? $esc{$1} : $
+1/eg;

    print $literal, "\n";

    print $escaped;

    __END__
    Prints:
    aaa\tbbb\nccc\tddd\t\\end

    aaa    bbb
    ccc    ddd    \\end
[download]

Backslash has to be escaped in single quoted strings so it doesn't require a substitution.

The escape characters shown are the usual shell escapes. Perl adds a few more such as \e. Note the exists() isn't strictly required.

--
John.