I'm guessing this is a bug.

It is a known behaviour, Perl's "global destruction" phase doesn't obey reference counts, and the order of destruction isn't guaranteed , so $perldata gets destroyed before $c/$b,

The solution to this kind of thing is to arrange for global objects to get destroyed before and to use weak references 

use DBI;

$perldata = bless { hello => 'world' }, 'superman' ;
@ARGV and $perldata = { hello => 'world' } ;

sub test {
    my( $o, $v ) = @_;
    my $m = bless { v => $v, perldata => $o }, 'TQIS::test' ;
    warn "$m $$m{v}";
    return $m ;
}

sub TQIS::test::DESTROY {
    my $self = shift ;
    warn "$self $$self{v} => $$self{perldata} ";
}

$a = test( $perldata , 'a') ;
$b = test( $perldata , 'b' ) ;
$c = test( $perldata , 'c' ) ;
__END__
$ perl junk
TQIS::test=HASH(0x3f8b5c) a at junk line 9.
TQIS::test=HASH(0x99a88c) b at junk line 9.
TQIS::test=HASH(0xa57854) c at junk line 9.
TQIS::test=HASH(0xa57854) c =>   at junk line 15 during global destruc
+tion.
TQIS::test=HASH(0x99a88c) b =>   at junk line 15 during global destruc
+tion.
TQIS::test=HASH(0x3f8b5c) a => superman=HASH(0x3f8a7c)  at junk line 1
+5 during global destruction.

$ perl junk --nobless
TQIS::test=HASH(0x99a43c) a at junk line 9.
TQIS::test=HASH(0x99a97c) b at junk line 9.
TQIS::test=HASH(0xa576a4) c at junk line 9.
TQIS::test=HASH(0xa576a4) c => HASH(0x3f8d04)  at junk line 15 during 
+global destruction.
TQIS::test=HASH(0x99a97c) b => HASH(0x3f8d04)  at junk line 15 during 
+global destruction.
TQIS::test=HASH(0x99a43c) a => HASH(0x3f8d04)  at junk line 15 during 
+global destruction.

[download]

See also Re: sub DESTROY: Strange ordering of object destruction

In reply to Re: use Switch wierdness by Anonymous Monk
in thread use Switch wierdness by tqisjim

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