#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use DBI;
my $database = 'test';
my $username = 'username';
my $password = 'secret';
my $dbh=DBI->connect("dbi:mysql:$database",
$username,$password,
{RaiseError=>1}) or die "can't\n";

#if you get this far, you're connected
# and you can list the tables in your db

print "$_\n" for $dbh->tables;

$dbh->disconnect();