Question

i.e. being able to do

$result = `my command`;

using :raw, :utf8, etc.

Any special variables I don’t know about, alternative methods or modules that can be used?

Answer 1

Well I don’t know if there are any special variables, but why not use open() for that task? You can specify the encoding on pipes like you would on files:

open(my $cmdin, "-|:raw", "your command");
my $result = join('', <$cmdin>);
close($cmdin);