Hey,

If I were you I'd make your external reference a reference to a temporary var, and then destroy your internal reference, and then the temporary one.

I really don't have a clue but hey, I gave it a shot.

Check out the following, might help:

perlref - Perl references
perldsc - Perl data structures intro
perllol - Perl data structures: lists of lists
perltoot - Perl OO tutorial
perlobj - Perl objects
perltie - Perl objects hidden behind simple variables
perlbot - Perl OO tricks and examples

"cRaZy is co01, but sometimes cRaZy is cRaZy".
                                                      - crazyinsomniac