Ok, here are more details about the application...

I've got a CGI program "index.pl". This script reads from a flat-file some of the content that will be printed as the web response. However, I want to be able to interpret macros (in perl) from the static file text... So

flatfile: 
Today is <% $a = localtime(time); print $a; %>

[download]
And index.pl is (basically): 
my $a = "important value";

# open flatfile here...

# use index and substr to find macro strings delimited with <% ... %>

# loop through found macros

eval($macro)

# replace macro code with eval value

# print resulting text

# keep using variable $a, expecting the value will still be "important
+ value"...

[download]
So here, I'd like a user to be able to use their own variables, and not be able to (even accidentily) mess up the calling script's scoped variables/functions.

In reply to Re^2: limiting scope of 'eval'?? by ManFromNeptune
in thread limiting scope of 'eval'?? by ManFromNeptune

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