Hello mighty monks, here is something strange I encountered today:

MyModule.pm : 
package MyModule;

use Importer;

1;

[download]
Importer.pm : 
package Importer;

sub import {
    my $caller = caller;
    print $caller . "\n";
}

1;

[download]

and the last piece, test.pl :

use strict;
no strict 'refs';

my $symtab = *{'main::MyModule::'}{HASH};

require 'MyModule.pm';

1;

[download]

When I start test.pl, as shown above, the result is:

main::MyModule

so this is the caller. But if you slightly modify it either by removing

my $symtab = *{'main::MyModule::'}{HASH};

[download]
or by changing 
require 'MyModule.pm';

[download]
to 
require MyModule;

[download]

the result is just (as expected) MyModule.

I tested it on the latest version of perl (5.18.1), as well on version 5.10.1. Results are the same.
Why this inconsistency happens? It caused me a lot of trouble and for me it looks suspicious.
Thanks.

In reply to Strange side effect on 'caller' function result by ainkov

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