my $params = { DataSource => 'dbi:mysql:sessions', UserName => 'root', Password => '', LockDataSource => 'dbi:mysql:sessions', LockUserName => 'root', LockPassword => '' }; my %session; eval { tie (%session, 'Apache::Session::MySQL', $sess_id, $params); }; tie (%session, 'Apache::Session::MySQL', undef, $params) if ( $@ ); #etcetera