>That looks great to me, since local will restore the value
>even if handler exits due to an exception (die).

That's what I'd hope, but I feel the need to get the reassurance that it won't fail mysteriously in mod_perl land.

>By the way, you can save yourself some typing by using our.

Right. Two comments.

1. I know about our and tend to use it exclusively these days, but at the time I wrote that code, I was too set in my old-fashioned ways.

2. Although our can save a bit of typing, it also masks the fact that, say, IP_address, *is* global, and I'm not yet convinced that that's always a good idea. At least if someone sees a package identifier at the start of a variable, they know for sure that globals are being used, and can factor in the potential long-range effects of altering those variables. In short, if you're going to be Evil, then it may be a good idea to trumpet the fact, rather than hide it away.

Steve Collyer