>perl -we"$_ = chr(0xE9); utf8::downgrade($_); print;" | perl -nE"say length;" 1 >perl -we"$_ = chr(0xE9); utf8::upgrade($_); print;" | perl -nE"say length;" 1 >perl -we"$_ = chr(1000); utf8::upgrade($_); print;" | perl -nE"say length;" Wide character in print at -e line 1. 2