Using the example script in the HTML:: Template description, I used the following script:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser warningsToBrowser);
use CGI ':standard';


my $varname = "path";



use HTML::Template;

  # open the HTML template
  my $template = HTML::Template->new(filename => 'test.tmpl');

  # fill in some parameters in the template
  $template->param(home => $ENV{HOME});
  $template->param($varname => $ENV{PATH});

  # send the obligatory Content-Type
  print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";

  # print the template
  print $template->output;
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Which worked no problem. You might like to try it out - it may help you to find the real source of your problem?