First off, you'll probably be lynched for using globals, but they are quite handy in some circumstances. I use them. I read mine out of a configuration file, but getting them out of a DB is conceptually the same.

In my case I'm using CGI:App with CGI's so keep in mind this is executed for each 'hit' from the browser. If I was in a high volume environment, I'd be looking at mod_perl. Anyway, I took the following approach to solve the same problem:

I declared a base class that extended CGI::App

package MyCGIApp;
use CGI::Application::ValidateRM;
use strict;
use vars qw( $VERSION);
$VERSION     = 1.00;
use base qw(CGI::Application);


sub cgiapp_init {
   my $self = shift;

  #######################
  package G;
  use Config::General;
  use vars qw( %CF );
  %G::CF = ParseConfig("../mymodules/config.dat");

... more stuff would be here (perhaps connecting to the DB) ...

}  # end MyCGIApp.pm
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Meanwhile in another file / perl module I extend from MyCGIApp, inheriting stuff including the variables. I use the package qualified name of the "global" variable (conviently called "G") so that strict won't complain.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

package CDNR;
use base MyCGIApp;  # Extending the class

... runmodes, etc, etc, ...
  
in one of them:
  $t->param(
        'Header'        =>      "My Header",
        'HeaderText'    =>      "$G::CF{headertext}",
           );
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In my example above, I've put all my globals into a hash, but you could use a scalar or two if you liked. That's it. Works like a charm.

BTW, speaking to the estimeed Monks around here; what is your opinion of my particular use of inheritence in this case?

Cheers,

-------------------------------------
Nothing is too wonderful to be true
-- Michael Faraday