I'm stuck in package hell. Will some good monk pray for an intervention for me? My code works fine in the debugger, but loses when I run it normally.

I'm gradually refactoring a large code base (many dozens of files) that was all written in package::main. In it, %printSwitches is a data structure that all of the files use. I want to put each of the module-files into its own package. My idea was to put %printSwitches, (and several other variables) into a package, and export that package to the other files that use it.

In brief, what I'm trying to do is
1) Create %base::Vars::runSwitches
2) Export %base::Vars::runSwitches to the main package and set its values there.
3) Export %base::Vars::runSwitches to the safer::Indenture::facetsIn package, and access its values.

When I run this normally, the access loses in the facetsIn file - %safer::Indenture::facetsIn::runSwitches is an empty array. Putting in some trace printing shows that the values are correct in %main::runSwitches; they just aren't being set in the base::Vars or safer::Indenture::facetsIn packages.

Here's the file for step (1) where I create the array: 

package base::Vars;

# Actually a bunch of others vars in here, but I'm simplifying.
use vars qw( %runSwitches );     
our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
our @EXPORT = qw(%runSwitches);

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Here's file (2) – The file whereami.pm sets $runSwitches{directories} to a value that depends on which machine the code is running on: 
package main;
use base::Vars qw(%runSwitches);
use vars qw(%runSwitches);
my $hostname = `hostname`; chop($hostname);
if($hostname eq 'ISL06){
    $runSwitches{directories} = {stat_out => '/net/httpd/htdocs/projec
+ts/reconciler',
                     DRMetrics => '/net/DRMetrics' ...}
elsif{ ....}{}

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In Step (3) I try to access the array in a third pacakge: 
package safer::Indenture::facetsIn;
use strict;
use base::Vars qw(%runSwitches);
use Carp;

sub orionDirs{
    print("safer::Indenture::facetsIn's directories: " ,
      join(' ', sort keys %{$runSwitches{directories}}),
      "\n");
    print("base::Vars::runSwitches' directories: ",
        join(' ', sort keys %{$base::Vars::runSwitches{directories}}),
       "\n");
    print("main::runSwitches{directories}'s directories: " ,
      join(' ', sort keys %{$main::runSwitches{directories}}),
      "\n");
    croak unless $runSwitches{directories}{orion_reqs}
    ...}

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And finally, a script test/ipack.pl which runs them all: 
package main;
use strict;
use base::whereami;
use safer::Indenture::facetsIn qw(orionDirs);

&orionDirs();
1

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When I run it normally it shows that the array never it from base::Var to main: 
perl -w test/ipack
safer::Indenture::facetsIn::runSwitches's directories: 
base::Vars::runSwitches' directories: 
main::runSwitches's directories: DRMetrics base external_cgi_bin exter
+nal_images external_ont external_rec knowledge ontology orion_reqs st
+at_out ucfDir

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But when I run it in the debugger all's well: 
perl -dw test/ipack.pl

Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.33
Editor support available.

Enter h or `h h' for help, or `man perldebug' for more help.

main::(test/ipack.pl:6):        &orionDirs();
  DB<1> c
safer::Indenture::facetsIn's directories: DRMetrics base external_cgi_
+bin external_images external_ont external_rec knowledge ontology orio
+n_reqs stat_out ucfDir
base::Vars::runSwitches' directories: DRMetrics base external_cgi_bin 
+external_images external_ont external_rec knowledge ontology orion_re
+qs stat_out ucfDir
main::runSwitches's directories: DRMetrics base external_cgi_bin exter
+nal_images external_ont external_rec knowledge ontology orion_reqs st
+at_out ucfDir

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What am I doing wrong? And why does it work OK in the debugger, but not outside of it?

And am I missing a tutorial that would have shown me a better way to debug this?

In reply to Code in package hell, deceive by debugger by throop

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