Just don't use smartmatch... And if files are small, I don't see any reason to read them byte by byte. 
$ perl -0777 -nE '
    my $count = 0;
    $count += length $2 while /(.)(\1+)/g;
    say $count;
' <<< "1112223333"
7

$ perldoc perlop | perl -0777 -nE '
    my $count = 0;
    $count += length $2 while /(.)(\1+)/g;
    say $count;
'
22788

[download]
(just don't decode your strings, and you'll have bytes... pretty much)

In reply to Re: Byte repetition check by Anonymous Monk
in thread Byte repetition check by james28909

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