$ssh = Net::OpenSSH->new(host=>$host, user=>$user, password=>$pw) or die "can't :(\n" . $ssh->error;

##</code><code>##

This method always succeeds in returning a new object. Error checking has to be performed explicitly afterwards:

my $ssh = Net::OpenSSH->new($host, %opts);
$ssh->error and die "Can't ssh to $host: " . $ssh->error;

##</code><code>##

my $host = "username.example.com";
my $user = "username";
my $pw = "password";