$ echo Unrecognized character \x05 in column 18 at C:/Perl/lib/Archive/Zip/ZipFileMember.pm line 40. |splain Unrecognized character \x05 in column 18 at C:/Perl/lib/Archive/Zip/ZipFileMember.pm line 40. (#1) (F) The Perl parser has no idea what to do with the specified character in your Perl script (or eval) at the specified column. Perhaps you tried to run a compressed script, a binary program, or a directory as a Perl program.