I want to get some info from an error that I get when I try to load a module, so I tried this: 
 
eval {
    use Cache::File;
};

[download]
But, it didn't stop the error from killing the program.

Update Added readmore tags.

It's this kind of error:
/usr/lib/dld.sl: Can't shl_load() a library containing Thread Local Storage: /usr/lib/libpthread.1 /usr/lib/dld.sl: Exec format error Can't load '/usr/local/perl-5.8.7/lib/5.8.7/PA-RISC2.0/auto/DB_File/DB_File.sl' for module DB_File: Exec format error at /usr/local/perl-5.8.7/lib/5.8.7/PA-RISC2.0/XSLoader.pm line 68. at /usr/local/perl-5.8.7/lib/5.8.7/PA-RISC2.0/DB_File.pm line 251 Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/perl-5.8.7/lib/site_perl/5.8.7/Cache/File/Heap.pm line 29. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/perl-5.8.7/lib/site_perl/5.8.7/Cache/File/Heap.pm line 29. Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/perl-5.8.7/lib/site_perl/5.8.7/Cache/File.pm line 26. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/perl-5.8.7/lib/site_perl/5.8.7/Cache/File.pm line 26. Compilation failed in require at ./tryCache line 6. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./tryCache line 6.

Now, my question is not how to fix the error, but is there something like eval, some trick, some procedure that will let me capture the error from the use statement and go on to take remedial action based on the error?
Do I have to launch a separate process and capture the STDERR?

Now here's the background:
My fix looks like this 

# fix for Cache::File    
BEGIN { 
    if (!defined($ENV{LD_PRELOAD})) {
        $ENV{LD_PRELOAD} = '/usr/local/perl-5.8.7/lib/5.8.7/PA-RISC2.0
+/auto/DB_File/DB_File.sl';
        my $me = "export LD_PRELOAD='$ENV{LD_PRELOAD}' &&  $0";
        {exec $me}
        print STDERR "couldn't exec $me\n";
    } elsif ($ENV{LD_PRELOAD} =~ /DB_File.sl/) { 
        print "LD_PRELOAD is $ENV{LD_PRELOAD}\n";
    } else { 
        $ENV{LD_PRELOAD} = '/usr/local/perl-5.8.7/lib/5.8.7/PA-RISC2.0
+/auto/DB_File/DB_File.sl'.":$ENV{LD_PRELOAD}:" ;
        my $me = "export LD_PRELOAD='$ENV{LD_PRELOAD}' &&  $0"; 
        {exec $me} 
        print STDERR "couldn't exec $me\n";
    }        
}

[download]
Now I'm OK with this, but I'd like to make it resilient to changes in perl or module location/version, so I'm thinking, capture the error output, get the location of the shared library and then put the variable in my BEGIN block.

andyford
or non-Perl: Andy Ford

In reply to stronger than eval? by andyford

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