There are cases where globals are fine, especially in smaller apps.

A common way to do a "global variable" is to use a Singleon. I would recommend using Class::Singleton vs. rolling your own, but the basic idea is:

package Dragonchild::Singleton;

my $singleton;

sub new
{
    my $class = shift;

    $singleton ||= bless {}, $class;

    return $singleton;
}
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No matter how many times Dragonchild::Singleton->new is called, the exact same variable is returned. It's partially a style issue, but I prefer singletons over our'ed variables. Other monks will tell you the opposite. TMTOWDI

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We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

The idea is a little like C++ templates, except not quite so brain-meltingly complicated. -- TheDamian, Exegesis 6

Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.