On line 26 you have the following:

$_ //= '' for $user, $rip, $op, $srvrip, $from, $msgid, $msgdate, $msg
+time;
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The //= operator was introduced in 5.10.0. As you mentioned, you're running this on a 5.8.x version of Perl. That's giving the compiler fits. Change that line to:

$_ = defined ? $_ : '' for $user, $rip, $op, $srvrip, $from, $msgid, $
+msgdate, $msgtime;
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Or maybe a little more clarity:

use constant EMPTY_STRING => q{};
# .....
foreach ( $user, $rip, $op, $srvrip, $from, $msgid, $msgdate, $msgtime
+ ) {
    $_ = EMPTY_STRING      # Alias propagates to foreach list.
        if not defined $_;
}
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