in reply to Illegal octal digit error

In perldata we find:
0xff                # hex
0xdead_beef         # more hex   
0377                # octal (only numbers, begins with 0)
0b011011            # binary

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So if you want to keep the leading zero, you must quote the value: then it will be considered a string, not an octal value.

CountZero

A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom