The only reason that: 

$in_msg =~ s/$config{'startblock'}//g;
$in_msg =~ s/$config{'endblock'}//g;

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works is because your strings go through an extra interpolation phase when used in a regex.

When you say that your variables end up getting set like: 

$config{'startblock'} = "\013";
$config{'endblock'} = "\034";

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you are wrong. In Perl, "\013" would give you a single character while your values are being read from a file so the values end up being 4 characters like '\013' or "\\013" would give you.

If you want \ to mean something special when used in your config file, then you'll have to add code to provide that special meaning. For example: 

s#\\(0[0-7]*)#pack("C",oct($1))#ge

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could be applied to such values to parse \0 octal escapes.

Updated as if via s/octal/oct/ to correct the bug noted by japhy. Thanks, japhy.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

In reply to (tye)Re: Octal Weirdness by tye
in thread Octal Weirdness by HaB

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