Hi morgon,

My question is not how to fix this particular case but if there was a way to ensure something is run at the very end, in particular when using some unknown code that you do not want to fiddle with.

Ah, I see - in that case it was still an interesting exercise. If you don't have circular references, then I believe END blocks are the answer, whereas if you do have circular references, that's what I might attack first. (Update: See Re^6: is there a way to ensure some code is the last thing that is run?)

So, do I understand correctly you don't have a specific case where you're having problems, and this was a theoretical exercise?

Regards,
-- Hauke D

Morgon, interesting discussion you started.

I think the best you can do is to focus on "seen first, run last" and "end of scope".

Using those 2 points, I think the following is the closest to what you are asking for.

#!perl

# Make this END block the first thing compiled to insure it
# will be the last END block to run.
END {
    # any special clean up goes here
    warn 'END - Bypassing final global Perl clean up';
    # $? is the value passed to exit() unless modified
    # in another END block.
    POSIX::_exit($?);
    # WARNING - Any DESTRUCTions that could not be
    # completed before _exit() is called will NOT
    # be completed
}

# Create an extra layer of scope
{
    use strict;
    use warnings;

    use Some::Module;

    my $s = Some::Module->new();
} # Close extra scope to trigger most of the DESTRUCTion

exit(0);
# Here, the various END blocks will run in reverse order
# of being compiled, concluding with the END block at the
# top of this file.
[download]

Disclaimer: Not tested. YMMV.