Thanks again. Though my cgi script still isn't working, I do have a better understanding of the situation.

I wondered about modules and their perl version-ness or dependence relative to the version of perl used. I gather that this is determined by the version of perl used to install the module. I've seen modules that explicitly require a particular version of perl but not all do. The error log indicates a syntax like problem in a core module not a version mismatch.

This raises a couple of questions:

At what point and how is the perl version of a module compared to the perl version that is interpreting it? In this case after parsing, assuming parsing is where the invalid range is found.

It's intuitive that a 5.8 module wouldn't work with perl 5.5.3 but what about the other way around? Would a 5.5.3 module work with 5.8?

If so, is this motivation to run the latest version of perl available while installing modules with the earliest? Or are perl versions (and their libs) kept entirely separate?

Please excuse my lack of experience.