# .bashrc sniglet

export DBHOST="mytestdbhost.mydomain.tld" 
export DBDB="mytestdb"
export DBUSER="user"
export DBPASSWORD="SeCrEt"
export DBDRIVER="mysql"

------- 8<snip! 8<--------------------------

# in some perl code, far far away
use DBI;
my $dbhost = $ENV{'DBHOST'};
my $dbname = $ENV{'DBDB'};
my $dbuser = $ENV{'DBUSER'};
my $dbpassword = $ENV{'DBPASSWORD'};
my $dbdriver = $ENV{'DBDRIVER'};

my $DSN=sprintf("DBI:%s:host=%s:database=%s",
                $dbdriver,$dbhost,$dbnaem);
my $dbh=DBI->connect($DSN,$dbuser,$dbpassword)
    or die DBI->errstr;

... etc....