This is how I believe the language works:

• Default Perl scripts are always instanced
• Module assigned using the "use" statement are only run once compile time, reference is then used to call the subroutines
• Module/Files assigned using the "require" statement are always loaded using a fresh instance

I called it Singleton to have a name for something where exactly one instance exists. How you want to implement this is a matter of taste.

IMHO you should use a packages function or a class' method to access this variable. As soon as you let it access from the outside of the package you don't have control over who changes what when. That makes concurrency hard. If you don't have concurrency than so what. But there is always also the requirement of testing which makes it feasible to encapsulate.

Be careful: use is (besides importing) a require at compile time. But a require is also just done once for a module. Have a look at perldoc -f require.

McA

I am mind blown right now.

It is going to sound retarded, but I just realized or remembered that perl was object oriented

I thought most singleton patterns in perl used a flock to ensure there was only one instance of a script running, but we can actually create new objects and call their functions. Also, according to my testings, it seems like the code within a package is always executed after using the 'use' statement which was not what I expected

Sorry if I was a little in doubt, I only code programs in perl once a year and I guess that what I had to do was never quite complex

Thank you very much for the help, a lots of new doors just opened to me ahah. I still can't believe I had tried to understand some the modules found on CPAN and did not recall it was using objects, I feel so ashamed lol. I probably just noticed it and went back to my regular implementation without giving it too much thoughts since it was not required at all for what I had to do. Again, thank you for making me realize I was missing one of the most basic feature of the language