How do I get a utf8 time string using POSIX::strftime ?

When using a utf8 locale, for example fr_FR.utf8, the output of POSIX::strftime is encoded in utf8 but without the utf8 flag on, ie: returns a byte string and not a character string. So when using utf8::upgrade on it (what the gtk2 bindings do), or when printing it to a file using ">:utf8", the non-ascii characters become garbage.

And of course, when using a non-utf8 locale such as fr_FR, the return value of POSIX::strftime is encoded in a locale specific encoding.

So what is the best way to get a proper utf8 string ? Do I really have to look at the locale value myself to know how to convert the string ?

Shouldn't that behavior be considered a bug ? (though probably hard to fix without breaking some existing programs) It should at least be mentioned in the documentation.

example code:

use POSIX "strftime";
my $s=strftime("%c",localtime);
open my($fh),">","without_utf8";
printf $fh $s;
open my($fh2),">:utf8","with_utf8";
printf $fh2 $s;
[download]

result with locale fr_FR.utf8 :
• "without_utf8" contains the correct utf8 date
• "with_utf8" contains a date with a garbled "Août" (french for August)

result with locale fr_FR
• "without_utf8" contains the date encoded in ISO-8859
• "with_utf8" contains the correct utf8 date

(tested with perl v5.10.1 and v5.12.1)

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