Perhaps, just perhaps, it's something to do with my Unix setup. I've got a box running HP Unix (blech), with the perl executable in /opt/perl5/bin/.

On that machine, I wrote this script:

#!/opt/perl5/bin/perl -w

print $^X;
[download]

When I start it using the perl command, it prints perl. When I start it using "./", I get

/opt/perl5/bin/perl
[download]

Intriguing. Makes me want to research it, just a bit more. I'd ++ you again if I could, just for giving me something to do today! :)

Update: I looked in O'Reilly's "Learning the Korn Shell", and found the answer. (At least in the Korn shell)when you invoke Perl by using the perl command, the shell searches your $PATH, finds perl in there somewhere, and executes just that command. When you invoke a script using the "./" method, the shell grabs the shebang line, and uses that instead of searching the $PATH first. I guess it's really basic Unix (or Korn shell?) stuff, but it was interesting to figure out!

higle