clob: 74:68:69:73:20:69:73:20:73:74:72:69:6E:67:20:77:69:74:68:20:B5:20:69:6E:20:69:74 -- byte conv: 74:68:69:73:20:69:73:20:73:74:72:69:6E:67:20:77:69:74:68:20:EF:BF:BD:20:69:6E:20:69:74 -- utf8 unix perlio clob: 'this is string with µ in it' Wide character in print at 742047.pl line 19 (#1) (W utf8) Perl met a wide character (>255) when it wasn't expecting one. This warning is by default on for I/O (like print). The easiest way to quiet this warning is simply to add the :utf8 layer to the output, e.g. binmode STDOUT, ':utf8'. Another way to turn off the warning is to add no warnings 'utf8'; but that is often closer to cheating. In general, you are supposed to explicitly mark the filehandle with an encoding, see open and perlfunc/binmode. conv: 'this is string with � in it' unix perlio encoding(utf8) utf8 clob: 'this is string with µ in it' conv: 'this is string with � in it'