#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; package Bar; our @ISA = qw(Foo); sub data { my $self = shift; return $self->SUPER::data(@_); } package Foo; our $AUTOLOAD; sub AUTOLOAD { my $self = shift; return if $AUTOLOAD =~ /^(.*::)?DESTROY$/; no strict 'refs'; my $old = defined *{$AUTOLOAD} ? *{$AUTOLOAD}{CODE}//'' : ''; my $force_new_code_ref = ''; *{$AUTOLOAD} = sub { warn "running sub $force_new_code_ref"; }; # usually a getter/setter, but simplified here. my $new = *{$AUTOLOAD}{CODE}; warn "installed sub AUTOLOAD=$AUTOLOAD new=$new old=$old"; &$new($self, @_); } package main; my $bar = bless {}, 'Bar'; $bar->data('baz'); $bar->data('bip'); $bar->data('bop'); $bar->data('boo');