Normally @INC contains '.' (i.e. current directory). So usually Perl programs can access perl modules in directory from which they were started.

For example output of perl -V on my computer:

bash-2.05a$ perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5.0 version 6 subversion 1) configuratio
+n:
.....
.....
.....
Characteristics of this binary (from libperl):
  Compile-time options: USE_LARGE_FILES
  Built under linux
  Compiled at Jan 11 2002 04:09:18
  @INC:
    /usr/local/lib/perl/5.6.1
    /usr/local/share/perl/5.6.1
    /usr/lib/perl5
    /usr/share/perl5
    /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1
    /usr/share/perl/5.6.1
    /usr/local/lib/site_perl
    .
   ^^^ - note this dot
[download]

--
Ilya Martynov (http://martynov.org/)