Consider the code:

$count = 0;
open(FILE, 'test.txt');
while(<FILE>) { $count++; }
close FILE;
print "$count\n";
[download]

Where 'test.txt' resembles:

Arbitrary data
Arbitrary data
Arbitrary data
Arbitrary data
<SUB>
Arbitrary data
Arbitrary data
Arbitrary data
Arbitrary data
[download]

And where <SUB> is the SUBstitute character (Dec 26 Hex 1A Oct 032)

When running on WinNT 4.0 with ActivePerl build 631 the above code prints 4 when the SUB is there, and 9 if that line is left blank.

Has anyone encountered this problem before?
Is there a way to get the <> operator to read past the SUB char?

Edit by Petruchio Thu Jan 16 18:05:09 UTC 2003 - The ^Z character was causing trouble for certain browsers. It was replaced in two places with the string <SUB>, as chosen by the author.