And now you've joined the huge throng of those who have had their scripts made slower by this File::Find "optimization".¹

Instead, set $File::Find::dont_use_nlink = 1 and go back to using _ and your module will no longer produce two calls to stat/lstat per file much of the time.

You could make sensible use of this optimization in your module since you can tell whether the files are being selected only based on their names. But File::Find should really only use this optimization in the few cases when it is useful, based on the user asking for that optimization.

¹ I don't much mind the speed penalty of often doing two stat/lstat calls per file, but I do mind it being caused by something claiming to be an optimization, especially when that optimization is responsible for breaking so much code, including the first version of a module sent to CPAN by merlyn (if merlyn, long advocate of File::Find, got caught by this in published code, surely many, many other people have lost time due this supposed time-saver).