[root@myserver tmp]# cat -n !$ cat -n ./per_begin.pl1 1 #!/usr/bin/perl -w 2 3 use strict; 4 5 6 my $x = "original state"; 7 8 sub foo { 9 print " \$x is: $x\n"; 10 } 11 12 { # beginning of lexical scope 13 14 local $x = "altered state"; 15 foo(); 16 17 } # end of lexical scope 18 print "\$x is: $x\n"; [root@myserver tmp]# ./!$ ././per_begin.pl1 Can't localize lexical variable $x at ././per_begin.pl1 line 14.