'--' isn't used to 'chop off' any characters - when used, as BrowserUk implied earlier, it flags the end of the CLI option list to the script/executable and thus whatever follows (in this case the ^M) is/are arguments to the script/executable.

The 'classic' usage is when grep'ping for a string containing dash(es) &/or minus(es) e.g. grep -- this-string some_file - which tells grep that 'this-string' is a string and not a malformed CLI option.

A user level that continues to overstate my experience :-))

In reply to Re^3: /usr/bin/perl^M: bad interpreter: by Bloodnok
in thread /usr/bin/perl^M: bad interpreter: by venuka

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.