I was going to say that wasn't true, but went back and looked at the last test program I was using and decided I hadn't tested that situation correctly. Using code
BEGIN {
my $foo = 'foom';
use lib $foo;
}
results in error messages
Use of uninitialized value in string eq at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi/lib.pm line 29.
Empty compile time value given to use lib at hotshot.pl line 5
Using your code
my $foo;
BEGIN { $foo = 'foom'; }
use lib $foo;
printf "executing: '%s'\n", join("', '", @INC );
returns the desired results
executing: 'foom', '/usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi', ... , '.'
Just to try something different I tried
BEGIN { our $foo = 'foom'; }
use lib $foo;
which also worked.
Another thing to put in the list of things to re-study. Key is that "use" (and other pragmas?) are executed (at compile time) before surrounding code at the same apparent 'level'. By enclosing code in a BEGIN block ahead of the "use" we force it into compile time execution before the following "use" is executed. (Or something like that ;-) |