select a variable as stdout and utf8 flag behaviour

[Gert Brinkmann]

Hello,

I have the following example code:

-----------------------------------------------------
use strict;
use utf8;
use Encode;
use FileHandle;

binmode STDOUT, ":utf8";

my $html = '';

#-- open filehandle to write into the $html variable as utf8
open(my $fh, '>:encoding(UTF-8)', \$html);
my $orig_stdout = select( $fh );


print "Ümläut Test ßaß; 使用下列语言\n";


select( $orig_stdout );
$fh->close();

#You need to activate this line to make utf8 output correct
#Encode::_utf8_on($html);

print $html;
-----------------------------------------------------


This prints out the utf8 characters corrupted. You have to flag the
Variable after writing into it with Encode::_utf8_on() as utf8 to make
it work correctly. (So activate the commented line.)

Using this _utf8_on() usually means that I am doing something wrong. Is
there a better way to achieve the correct behaviour?


Btw. there was a change in the behaviour between perl v5.14.2 and
v5.20.2: In older perl versions you could do a

my $html = '';
Encode::_utf8_on($html);

before opening the file handle onto this variable. In newer perl
versions the utf8 flag is reset on open() and print() to the variable's
file handle.

Greetings
Gert