Let's assume you have a CGI object:

my $q = new CGI;
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Cookies are accessed through $q->cookie('name').

Cookies are sent by the browser when requesting the page. If you set a cookie in a CGI script, the cookie is sent to the browser, but not set in $q->cookie. ie,

Set      == Cookie stored in browser
Readable == Cookie available in $q->cookie('name')

Event                 Set?  Readable?
Browser request        n       n
Response to Browser    y       n
Subsequent Browser     y       y
  Requests(*)
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(*) - within the life of the cookie.

Just remember that $q->cookie only contains cookies sent by the browser as part of that particular http request!

Hope that clears things up a little :)

cLive ;-)