Your test case can be simplified somewhat further and still crash:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

package Foo;


sub new {
    my ($class) = @_;
    
    return bless {}, $class;
}


sub DESTROY {
    Foo->new();
}


package main;

Foo->new ();
[download]

It may even be obvious now why it crashes. No? Well, consider what happens to the instance constructed in the destructor as the destructor cleans up before exiting.

It may be that this is a different issue than the one you are experiencing (I can't tell exactly from your various snippets of code), but it is the problem you describe.

Actually there are a number of issues in your code that look a little Perl 4ish or otherwise sub-optimum.

• Don't use prototypes unless you really understand what they do. I can't think of any good use of a prototype for a constructor.
• Use the XML::LibXML->new () syntax for call constructors.
• bless $self, __PACKAGE__ makes inheritance tricky. Instead use:

  sub new {
      my ($class) = @_;
      my $self = bless {}, $class;
      ...
  [download]

• Oh, and don't construct instances of a class in the class's destructor - that leads to unhappiness.

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