I think I've found a bug in coreutils, env.

Linux debian 4.9.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.65-3+deb9u1 (2017-12-23) x86_64 GNU/Linux

All my Perl scripts contain either of these shebangs:

#!/usr/bin/env perl -w
or
#!/usr/bin/env perl -wd

When I attempt to run a Perl script with either of these shebangs in debian I get:

/usr/bin/env: ‘perl -w’: No such file or directory

It is not perl that can't be found; it is either env's or bash's handling of the argument. If I remove the -w and/or the -wd arguments the scripts execute, but of course, without the benefit of those switches.

The man page for env asserts that any command may take an argument. I have tried every way I can think of to quote the -w and the -wd but env is treating these perl command line arguments as filenames, and since they aren't files, renders that error message. I'm running the latest coreutils as in this apt-get fragment:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
coreutils is already the newest version (8.26-3).

Both of these shebangs work correctly in macOS 10.13.3 with the native perl from Apple and perlbrew perl. That is where I do most of my perl work but now I need to move those scripts to debian, without changing the shebangs. Is this a bug in env, something in bash or pilot error?

Regards,
T.W. Schmidt