Is -C useless?

[Paul LeoNerd Evans]

Consider the following:

  #!/usr/bin/perl -COL

  print "Hello w\xe9rld\n";

  $ perl test.pl 
  Too late for "-COL" option at test.pl line 1.

WTF?? If that's "too late", where else can I put it?

If I remove it from the file:

  $ perl -COL test.pl
  Hello wérld

But of course now STDOUT isn't UTF-8.

  $ perl test.pl
  Hello w�ld

This can be fixed by:

  #!/usr/bin/perl

  binmode STDOUT, ":utf8" if $ENV{LANG} =~ m/\.UTF-8$/;

  print "Hello w\xe9rld\n";

  $ perl test.pl
  Hello wérld

But of course, this is the exact behaviour that -COL is supposed to
provide; and yet is "too late" by the shebang time.. Yet, clearly not
because I can do it even later at runtime.

Can anyone offer any insight here?

-- 
Paul "LeoNerd" Evans

leonerd at leonerd.org.uk
ICQ# 4135350       |  Registered Linux# 179460
http://www.leonerd.org.uk/
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