What you've actually done is create an alias that refers to all "things" named 'refresh_list' That includes &refresh_list, $refresh_list, %refresh_list, @refresh_list, and a few more esoteric items.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use vars qw($refresh_list %refresh_list @refresh_list);

%refresh_list = @refresh_list = 1..10;
$refresh_list = 'Im a scalar';
sub refresh_list { return "Im a subroutine" };

my %command_list = (
                    'update' => {
                                 args => 2,
                                 function => *refresh_list,
                                },
                   );

print "Sub:    " . &{ $command_list{update}{'function'} } . "\n";
print "Scalar: " . ${ $command_list{update}{'function'} } . "\n";
print "Hash:   " . %{ $command_list{update}{'function'} } . "\n";
print "Array:  " . @{ $command_list{update}{'function'} } . "\n";

__END__

Sub:    Im a subroutine
Scalar: Im a scalar
Hash:   4/8
Array:  10
[download]

-Blake

One of the fun things about using typeglobs, is that you can use it to figure out which subs are defined in a given package. So, by doing something like this, you can skip the entire dispatch table(of course this wont work under use strict qw(refs);:

for (@ARGV){
        if(*{$_}{CODE}){
                &{*{$_}};
        } else {
                print STDERR "Dont know about $_\n";
        }
}
[download]

Goldclaw