$ not_utf8="$( printf "\x96" )" $ perl -e"use utf8; q{$not_utf8}" Malformed UTF-8 character: \x96 (unexpected continuation byte 0x96, with no preceding start byte) at -e line 1. Malformed UTF-8 character (fatal) at -e line 1. #### $ printf "\x96" | perl -nle' use open ":std", ":utf8"; printf "%vX\n", $_; ' Malformed UTF-8 character: \x96 (unexpected continuation byte 0x96, with no preceding start byte) in printf at -e line 1, <> line 1. 0