$ perl -MO=Deparse -e 'my $foo = somefunc() or "text"' '???' unless my $foo = somefunc(); $ perl -MO=Deparse,-p -e 'my $foo = somefunc() or "text"' ((my $foo = somefunc()) or '???'); $ perl -MO=Deparse,-p -e 'my $foo = somefunc() || "text"' (my $foo = (somefunc() || 'text'));