$ echo 'Global symbol "$input" requires explicit package name at -e line 1.' | splain Global symbol "$input" requires explicit package name at -e line 1 (#1) (F) You've said "use strict" or "use strict vars", which indicates that all variables must either be lexically scoped (using "my" or "state"), declared beforehand using "our", or explicitly qualified to say which package the global variable is in (using "::").