Perl doesn't do much automatic convert of / to \ on Win32. I think it is actually more common that some modules convert \ to / when on Win32 so that the rest of their code doesn't have to deal with \ directory separators.

The fact is that Win32 allows / as a directory separator in almost all places. The few exceptions I have found include

• Many programs that use / for command-line options (such as most programs from Microsoft) won't let you use / as a directory separator for file names on their command line.
• The standard "open file dialog" controls don't allow / as a directory separator.
• The DefineDosDevice() API call doesn't allow the use of / in the definition of a "raw target path".

So, in Perl on Win32, you will only very rarely run into problem using / as a directory separator except if you try to use it on some other program's command line.

Unfortunately, there are also some fairly rare cases where using \ as a directory separator will cause you problems in Perl, so there isn't just one simple solution.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")