Re mod_perl keeping old values in scope:

Can I stop it? Should I? Should I just reinitialize the variable in the subroutine the same way I do in the main script? Why does it do that?

Mod_perl (or more precisely, Apache::Registry) converts scripts to subroutines so they can be re-used without recompiling. Basically, if you have a script like this:

my $var = param('something');
sub print_var {
  print $var;
}
print_var();
[download]

It will get converted to something like this:

sub run_my_script {
  my $var = param('something');
  sub print_var {
    print $var;
  }
  print_var();
}
[download]

And you should get a Variable "$var" will not stay shared warning in your error log.

AFAIK what happens is that in perl you can't really define named subroutines (like "print_var" here) inside another subroutine. If you try, you can run into scoping issues. In this case, if you call run_my_script() repeatedly, print_var() will always only see the first value of $var.

One solution is to put most of your code in a module and use that from the script.

Another is to remove the script entirely and write an request handler module that does whatever the script does.

Update: yet another solution would be to not access the lexical variables available from the "higher up" scope inside your subroutines -i.e. pass everything needed as subroutine arguments instead. And pay attention to that error log :-)

See also Exposing Apache::Registry secrets in the CGI to mod_perl porting guide.

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.