So what's a good way to deal with this?

One way I've solved this for some modules for general use that I've authored for my job is to use XML::Simple to store my configs. If I have a program that is invoking a module that needs to get to a config file named "foo.pl" I simply create a file in the directory the script lives in called "foo.xml" and put the configuration information in there. For instance I have some database access modules that I use a lot and I store the information as such:

<disco_database>
     <host>database-host.foo.com</host>
     <dbname>disco</dbname>
     <user>disco</dbname>
     <password>duck</password>
</disco_database>
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in my xml file. The module s written to invoke XML::Simple thusly:

package my_package;
use Class::DBI::Loader; 
use XML::Simple;
     | much handwaving...
sub new { 
     | more handwaving...
     my $config = new XMLIn();
     $self->{loader} = 
       Class::DBI::Loader -> new (
        dsn => sprintf("dbi:%s:dbname=%s;host=%s",
               $config->{disco_database}->{driver},
               $config->{disco_database]->{dbname},
               $config->{disco_database}->{host}),
        user=>$config->{disco_database}->{user},
        password=>$config->{disco_database}->{password}
         | and so forth...
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This has the added bonus that if I have change any of the parameters that the script and its associated modules need to live on change I don't have to search through all the source code of the modules and script to change variables.

In other cases (and actually, the project I call "disco" is a good example of this) I put a config file that is central for that module. If I ever have to override it I make that a potential parameter for instantiating the module. For instance:

| blah blah...
use IBM::Disco::HostEntry;

|
}
| blah
|
|
my $he = IBM::Disco::HostEntry->new{ config_file => 
                 qq(/path/to/file) );
|
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When the module is instantiated it uses a default normally but when the parameter config_file is passed to the constructor I use that value instead.