$ cat test.dat foo bar baz quux $ perl -wMstrict -M5.010 -ane 'say $F[0]' test.dat foo baz $ perl -wMstrict -M5.010 -ae 'say $F[0]' test.dat Variable "@F" is not imported at -e line 1. Global symbol "@F" requires explicit package name at -e line 1. Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.