I have to build a text file in a fixed-width format for feeding into an antiquated autodialer. Using the perl format function I get all the fields properly space-padded with one glaring exception: At the right-hand side I need to pad out the last variable with about fifty spaces before the carriage return, but no matter what I try I cannot get the formatter to pad it. It merely truncates the line at the end of the last character of the last variable without adding the padding specified by my use of @<<<<<<<<<<<< etc. There is no newline char in any of the variables (the line containing one having been chomped off when reading in the data to begin with), so that's not preventing the proper formatting. I can get the formatter to pad spaces up to a final single character of my choosing before the newline, and I can also get the formatter to pad any other characters up to the EOL, but numerous experiments have failed to give me nothing but spaces up to the newline.
Please advise.