You are misdiagnosing the problem, because whitespace isn't a problem.

#!/usr/bin/perl --

mkdir 'i got white space';
mkdir 'i got white space/one';
mkdir 'i got white space/o n e';
mkdir 'i got white space/o ne';
mkdir 'i got white space/one';

opendir INDIR, 'i got white space';

print "($_)\n" for readdir INDIR;

closedir INDIR;

__END__
(.)
(..)
(o n e)
(o ne)
(one)
[download]