So suddenly my problem is reduced to including variable files! Unfortunately a similar lack of recusive support means this doesn't work: <!-- tmpl_include name='<!-- tmpl_var name='filename' -->'>
try HTML::Template::Compiled*) - it offers TMPL_INCLUDE_VAR which includes the template file given (it also offers TMPL_INCLUDE_STRING, so that you can pass a template string into another template, but that might cost a bit of performance)
*) disclaimer: i'm the author.

In reply to Re^3: Abstracting away layout details when using large HTML::Template-based sites? by tinita
in thread Abstracting away layout details when using large HTML::Template-based sites? by skx

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