Perl uses "\n" to represent the "logical" newline, where what is logical may depend on the platform in use. In MacPerl, "\n" always means "\015". In DOSish perls, "\n" usually means "\012", but when accessing a file in "text" mode, STDIO translates it to (or from) "\015\012", depending on whether you&’re reading or writing. Unix does the same thing on ttys in canonical mode. "\015\012" is commonly referred to as CRLF.