A general solution is impossible. Any file can contain normal text characters that another OS would interpret as line separators. You may be able to assume that this will never happen with your data. Your idea of slurping the entire file (in binmode) into a string is probably the safest. Use anything you know about the file (line length, number of lines, words that only occur at the start or end of a line, etc) to determine which kind of file it is. Open the string as a memory file with the appropriate IO layer. You could then use the <> operator exactly as you normally would.
Bill

In reply to Re: Dealing with files with differing line endings by BillKSmith
in thread Dealing with files with differing line endings by dd-b

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