$line =~ s/(\$\w+->{\w+})/"$1 or ''"/eeg;
# or
$line =~ s/(\$\w+->{\w+})/eval "$1" or ''/eg;
# or my favorite
$line =~ s/(\$\w+->{\w+})/eval "$1" or 
           print(STDERR "$1 is not defined\n"), ''/eg;
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This gives me the same warning. I thought it should work as well, though i wrote it like this with and without parans around the defined statement as mentioned above. Curious

        for my $line (@cfile){
            $line =~ s/(\$\w+->{\w+})/defined $1 ? $1 : ''/eeg;
            $line =~ s/(\$\w+)/defined $1 ? $1 : ''/eeg;
            $text .= $line;
         }
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Quotation marks. I was suggesting you use quotation marks.

#!perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my $foo = undef;

# No warning
my $line = 'substitute for $foo in here';
$line =~ s/(\$\w+)/"defined $1 ? $1 : ''"/eeg;
print $line, "\n";

# Warning
$line = 'substitute for $foo in here';
$line =~ s/(\$\w+)/defined $1 ? $1 : ''/eeg;
print $line, "\n";
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---

Caution: Contents may have been coded under pressure.

I understood what you meant, i should have been more clear in my reply. I think i may have discovered part of the problem though. I'll look into it and get back to you

It looks like i had a scope problem a little further up in the code. the only reason i noticed it was because i attempted to run your code with the addition on an undelcared var. i.e.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
my $foo = undef;

# No warning
my $line = 'substitute for $foo in $bar here';
$line =~ s/(\$\w+)/"defined $1 ? $1 : ''"/eeg;
print $line, "\n";
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hairbear% ./test2.pl
Use of uninitialized value in substitution iterator at ./test2.pl line
+ 11.
substitute for  in  here
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Edit by tye: remove PRE tags around long lines