in reply to How do I handle mid-line carriage returns in a flatfile database?
The best way is to stop using return to end database records. =) Set $/="\033\n";
and write records with that on the end of the record. Using a 2 char line terminator lets you
have a nice return at the end for eyeballing the files and use a nasty binary character to make the end-of-line special versus your data.