I dedicated a few hours to this today to see if there's a way to explicitly gain access to and modify the __DATA__ target into existence, when it wasn't explicitly defined, or gain access to $0 without opening it.

I tried all manner of hacking the Symbol Table, trying to force things into position, tried to merge the current running script into something that could be used, and alas, I honestly think it can't be done the way you desire.

I agree with AnonymousMonk, that you're going to have to load __FILE__. Do it in BEGIN, stash the results, and deal with the penalty.

I have modules that'll do this, but your efficiency goes down the toilet.

Discipulus said "I hope to hear working solutions but i humbly suspect we'll not", and I agree. I have one module that does deep file 'stuff', but from what I can tell, there's no way to hack a file handle to point to the current running script without opening it directly (I'm hoping with all I have that someone will direct us to a different understanding).

I keenly await responses from those who might be able to correct this understanding, through perhaps perlapi, symtab or otherwise.

Good question.