{
  package Foo;
  sub new { bless({}, $_[0]) }
  DESTROY { eval { die "Woof\n"; }; }
}

eval {
   my $foo = Foo->new();
   die "Meow\n";
};

print($@); # Woof

##</code><code>##

$@=undef;
{ local $@; ... }
# $@ is undef here, no matter what "..." is.