perl read a file on Windows is very strange

[perlisfun]

i have simple log file on my PC. it is as below:

PeopleSoft Project Command Line
Copy To File
Project Name: PT_TEST_STAT_EXP
Tools Release: 8.49.24
2010-11-22 : 16.00.29

-CT Source Database Type = ORACLE
-CD Source Database Name = PSQSTG
-CO Source Database Operator = PSAPI
-FP File Path = Q:\Salem_RE\csr_export
-AF Keep Target Audit Flags = 0
-DDL Keep Target DDL = 1
-CFD Keep Target Chartfield PageField Display Size = 0
-CFF Keep Target Chartfield DbField Format = 0
-PPL Keep Target Portal Structure Permission List = 0
 
Project Q:\Salem_RE\csr_export\PT_TEST_STAT_EXP already exists, contin
+uing processing, switch set to overwrite.
Records Application Upgrade Copy started:  2010-11-22-16.00.30
Records Application Upgrade Copy ended:  2010-11-22-16.00.30
Fields Application Upgrade Copy started:  2010-11-22-16.00.30
Fields Application Upgrade Copy ended:  2010-11-22-16.00.30
Saving Project Definition...
Saving Project Definition...Complete.

Command line process successfully completed.

It looks normal via notepad or wordpad. I wrote a very simple script to just print this file out. Following is what i got:

P e o p l e S o f t   P r o j e c t   C o m m a n d   L i n e 
 
 C o p y   T o   F i l e 
 
 P r o j e c t   N a m e :   P T _ T E S T _ S T A T _ E X P 
 
 T o o l s   R e l e a s e :   8 . 4 9 . 2 4 
 
 2 0 1 0 - 1 1 - 2 2   :   1 6 . 0 0 . 2 9 
 
 
 
 - C T   S o u r c e   D a t a b a s e   T y p e   =   O R A C L E 
 
 - C D   S o u r c e   D a t a b a s e   N a m e   =   P S Q S T G 
 
 - C O   S o u r c e   D a t a b a s e   O p e r a t o r   =   P S A P
+ I 
 
 - F P   F i l e   P a t h   =   Q : \ S a l e m _ R E \ c s r _ e x p
+ o r t 
 
 - A F   K e e p   T a r g e t   A u d i t   F l a g s   =   0 
 
 - D D L   K e e p   T a r g e t   D D L   =   1 
 
 - C F D   K e e p   T a r g e t   C h a r t f i e l d   P a g e F i e
+ l d   D i s p l a y   S i z e   =   0 
 
 - C F F   K e e p   T a r g e t   C h a r t f i e l d   D b F i e l d
+   F o r m a t   =   0 
 
 - P P L   K e e p   T a r g e t   P o r t a l   S t r u c t u r e   P
+ e r m i s s i o n   L i s t   =   0 
 
   
 
 P r o j e c t   Q : \ S a l e m _ R E \ c s r _ e x p o r t \ P T _ T
+ E S T _ S T A T _ E X P   a l r e a d y   e x i s t s ,   c o n t i 
+n u i n g   p r o c e s s i n g ,   s w i t c h   s e t   t o   o v e
+ r w r i t e . 
 
 R e c o r d s   A p p l i c a t i o n   U p g r a d e   C o p y   s t
+ a r t e d :     2 0 1 0 - 1 1 - 2 2 - 1 6 . 0 0 . 3 0 
 
 R e c o r d s   A p p l i c a t i o n   U p g r a d e   C o p y   e n
+ d e d :     2 0 1 0 - 1 1 - 2 2 - 1 6 . 0 0 . 3 0 
 
 F i e l d s   A p p l i c a t i o n   U p g r a d e   C o p y   s t a
+ r t e d :     2 0 1 0 - 1 1 - 2 2 - 1 6 . 0 0 . 3 0 
 
 F i e l d s   A p p l i c a t i o n   U p g r a d e   C o p y   e n d
+ e d :     2 0 1 0 - 1 1 - 2 2 - 1 6 . 0 0 . 3 0 
 
 S a v i n g   P r o j e c t   D e f i n i t i o n . . . 
 
 S a v i n g   P r o j e c t   D e f i n i t i o n . . . C o m p l e t
+ e . 
 
 
 
 C o m m a n d   l i n e   p r o c e s s   s u c c e s s f u l l y   c
+ o m p l e t e d .

perl guru, take look at my code. where i can go wrong?

Thanks,

 
#!perl

open(F, "<", "C:\\TEMP\\PT_TEST_STAT_EXP_export.log");
while ( <F> ) {
  print "$_";
}
close(F);

[Corion]

This looks as if your file is in UTF-16LE encoding. Use the following to read it:

my $filename = "C:\\TEMP\\PT_TEST_STAT_EXP_export.log";
open my $fh, '<:encoding(UTF-16LE)', $filename
    or die "Couldn't read '$filename': $! / $^E";
while (<$fh>) {
    ...
};

[ikegami]

That will fail to convert CR LF to LF even though :crlf is used, and it will corrupt a number of character combinations. (Specifically, the character U+0A0D and pairs of the form U+0Dxx U+xx0A.)

Fix if you want CR LF ⇒ LF conversion:

open my $fh, '<:raw:perlio:encoding(UTF-16LE):crlf', $filename
    or die "Couldn't read '$filename': $! / $^E";

Fix if you want to leave CR LF intact:

open my $fh, '<:raw:perlio:encoding(UTF-16LE)', $filename
    or die "Couldn't read '$filename': $! / $^E";

(Mind you, corruption is very unlikely to occur since you'd have to be dealing with Malayalam characters. The non-functioning :crlf layer a more likely problem.)

It's unfortunate that one has to go through these shenanigans when dealing with non-ASCII encodings.

[perlisfun]

Thank you very much. It works like charm!

[tod222]

In the section Tags You Should NOT Use, Markup in the Monastery says:

At first blush, the <pre> ...</pre pair may look like an alternative to code tags... BUT DON'T USE IT HERE chiefly because <pre>...</pre> tags will not wrap lines that are too long for the viewer's browser window.

[fisher]

please please please use the <readmore> tag, please!