Variables from modules

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I've done this before, so i must be missing something simple.

I have the following module, "test.pm":

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

our $foo = "test";

1;
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and have the following script:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

use lib "/var/www/scripts";
use test;

print $test::foo ."\n";
[download]

And get an "Use of uninitialized value in print" error. I've also tried using the following, which results in error as well:

print $foo
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I can replace "foo" with any variable that does not exist and get the same error. So it seems like it is not reading test.pm properly. But it is at least finding it (trying to load a module that does not exist results in an error).

what am i doing wrong?

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Re: Variables from modules by dave_the_m (Monsignor) on Sep 16, 2004 at 14:05 UTC
You need to add `package test;` at the top of `test.pm` Dave.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Variables from modules by Anonymous Monk on Sep 16, 2004 at 14:14 UTC
That didn't do it either. I'm still getting the same error. test.pm now looks like this: `package vars; use strict; our $foo = "test"; 1;` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Variables from modules by Anonymous Monk on Sep 16, 2004 at 14:16 UTC
er. `package test;` [download] was thinking of something else while typing.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Variables from modules by ikegami (Patriarch) on Sep 16, 2004 at 14:42 UTC
Re^4: Variables from modules by dave_the_m (Monsignor) on Sep 16, 2004 at 14:40 UTC
Re: Variables from modules by sintadil (Pilgrim) on Sep 16, 2004 at 14:03 UTC
Did you perhaps forget to put a package declaration in `test.pm`?	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Variables from modules by zejames (Hermit) on Sep 16, 2004 at 14:33 UTC
our declares a variable to be valid within the block or file. Use this code instead : `package Test; use strict; use vars qw/$foo/; $foo = "test"; 1;` [download] update : as dave_the_m and ikegami have just said below, I was wrong. our can be used for that. So : code testing is good should be my new motto... -- zejames	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Variables from modules by dave_the_m (Monsignor) on Sep 16, 2004 at 14:46 UTC
our declares a variable to be valid within the block or file. Er, no. `our` creates a lexically-scoped alias of a global variable. The variable is still accessible from any src file by providing the fully-qualified name. There is is no need for the the OP to use `use vars`, as my working code I posted earlier demonstrates. Dave.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Variables from modules by ikegami (Patriarch) on Sep 16, 2004 at 14:47 UTC
Nope. `our` makes it so you don't have to use a fully qualified name when addressing the variable within the block or file. You can still access the variable from anywhere, because you never have to declare package variables (or whatever you call variables that aren't lexicals). I've tested it with `our` and it works great.	[reply] [d/l] [select]