It may be useful to print the value of  $output after it has been given some (possibly) meaningful value: 

...
my $output = $ex->output();
print ">>$output<<";
...

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This may remove doubt. Note that the variable is being printed with clear indications of its start and end.

Give a man a fish:  <%-{-{-{-<

In reply to Re^3: perl script by AnomalousMonk
in thread perl script by ronak

Title:
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