[13:48:33] ~/test$ cat a 12345678901234567890äöüäöüäöüäöüäöüäöüäö [13:48:39] ~/test$ hexdump -C a 00000000 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 |1234567890123456| 00000010 37 38 39 30 c3 a4 c3 b6 c3 bc c3 a4 c3 b6 c3 bc |7890............| 00000020 c3 a4 c3 b6 c3 bc c3 a4 c3 b6 c3 bc c3 a4 c3 b6 |................| 00000030 c3 bc c3 a4 c3 b6 c3 bc c3 a4 c3 b6 0a |.............| 0000003d [13:48:42] ~/test$ perl -MEncode -wE'open my $FH, "<:utf8", "a" or die $!; my @entries = do { local $/ = \5; <$FH> }; say encode_utf8($_) for @entries;' 12345 67890 12345 67890 äöüäö üäöüä öüäöü äöüäö