encode_utf8 does not do what you think it does. You need to decode() to the internal text format. That also means you still need to know what the original encoding is and Encode::decode() needs to support that format.

update: very compactly:

Encode::encode() etc translate text strings in perl into binary strings in some external encoding.

Encode::decode() and friends translate binary strings from some encoding into perl text strings.

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

In reply to Re^3: Writing unicode characters to file using open($fh, ">:utf8, $name) mangles unicode? by Joost
in thread Writing unicode characters to file using open($fh, ">:utf8, $name) mangles unicode? by telcontar

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.