lanx@nc10-ubuntu:/tmp$ cat use_wrong.pl use wrongdata; print ; package TST; 1; __END__ end lanx@nc10-ubuntu:/tmp$ perl use_wrong.pl end lanx@nc10-ubuntu:/tmp$ cat wrongdata.pm package TST; 1; __DATA__ wrongdata lanx@nc10-ubuntu:/tmp$ perl -MO=Deparse use_wrong.pl use wrongdata; print ; package TST; '???'; package TST; __DATA__ wrongdata use_wrong.pl syntax OK