#!/usr/bin/perl -w package Null; use strict; our $AUTOLOAD; sub AUTOLOAD { warn __PACKAGE__ . " $AUTOLOAD CALLED" } package Foo; use strict; sub new { bless [], __PACKAGE__ } sub DESTROY { my $self = shift; warn __PACKAGE__ . " DESTROY CALLED"; } package main; my $s1 = Foo->new; my $s2 = $s1; $s1->DESTROY; bless $s1, 'Null';