This is hard to tell by a verbal description and without seeing an SSCCE.

Basically: The more you need to refactor, the riskier.

Some thoughts:

• Is it a one file project?

  If you use file scoped my lexicals instead, you won't have to change the code using those vars.

• If it's multi-file project,

  you could use a tie interface to implement those methods (in FETCH and STORE) with my vars, while sticking with the old syntax.

  Those methods will come with a speed penalty, but you can also use it to monitor where your vars are actually used and gradually replace them with real lexicals.

• Regarding modperl,

  I'm not sure if that's still state of the art, I'd rather look for fastcgi or similar first.

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