This seems to be exactly the solution I'm after, however I wonder about the consequences in a mod_perl context...

Say I have a module called DO_STUFF.pm, and DO_STUFF has the following code in it:

package DO_STUFF.pm;

BEGIN {
  use strict;
  use Exporter;
  use vars qw(@ISA @EXPORT);
  my $conf = determine_conf_module_name();
  eval "use $conf;";
}
do_stuff....etc...
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Now I load DO_STUFF.pm into memory for mod_perl and at loading time I would assume that $conf is determined and that module is now loaded into memory space for use by DO_STUFF.

But what happens when I am using DO_STUFF in a context that changes what determine_conf_module_name() returns, i.e. a new $conf, how would DO_STUFF.pm (already loaded into memory) know to use a different module?

Would it be better to execute

  my $conf = determine_conf_module_name();
  eval "use $conf;";
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during instantiation, like this:

package DO_STUFF.pm;

use strict;
use Exporter;
use vars qw(@ISA @EXPORT);
...
sub new {
  my $conf = determine_conf_module_name();
  eval "use $conf;";
...
}
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Or is the BEGIN{} block run only during instantiation of the object so I'm fine...?

oooOOOOooo....my head is all twisty now...

THANKS ALL!!!

Tosh