my $state = {
   username  => $username,
   sessionid => $sessionid,
   whatever  => $else,
};

&one($state, $other_args);
&two($state, @more);
&three($state);
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$state = new Object($username, $sessionid);

$state->one($other_args);
$state->two(@more);
$state->three;
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Okay, I was thinking of creating a package "Common" that would hold the state variables. Can you "set" a variable in a package and be able to retrive it later if you maintain the pointer to the package? For instance..

package Common;
my $session;

#main program
$comm=new Common;
$comm->session="1234";
$temp=$comm->session;
print "$temp";
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would this print out 1234 or can you not assign variables inside packages like this? Thanks.

$Common::variable = "value";
print $Common::variable;      # 'value'
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Ok, on to your question:
You don't need a separate package for these variables. If you declare the variables in your script before declaring any subs then all the subs in main:: can see them. If you have them in a namespace other then main::, then you'll either want to use our (5.6+) or use vars($^V<5.6)

#!perl -w
use strict; #Always!

my $username=user;
my $sessionid=1234;

subone($comm);
#in subroutines i could call 
subone 
{
print "$comm->$username";
}
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It may not have been clear from my original post, but the subs themselves are in different package, that are being called by main, so they variables wouldn't be seen if I just declared them as globals.

Actually, that's what I meant when I said, "If you have them in a namespace other then main::, then you'll either want to use our (5.6+) or use vars($^V<5.6)." With out playing games with the import() method or Exporter, you can get to package globals by fully specifying the package name. ie:

use strict; # I can't emphasize that enough!
{
  package Common;
  use vars qw/ $Var1 @Var2 /;
  $Var1 = "some value";
  @Var2 = ( 1, 2, 3);

  if( $^V =~ m/^5\.6/ )
  {
    our $Var3 = "The 5.6 way to do the above";
  }
}

# Now in main:: name space
print $Common::Var1;
print reverse @Common::Var2;
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You can declare the variable global ( using use vars qw ($variable); ) ( I assume you use strict ).

you can access this in any package with $::variable if you declared it in main package ( i.e no declared package) , or $packagename::variable where packagename is the package you declared the variable in.

The second way is to use 00 perl and closures. This is the way to go if you want to have maintainable code. The definitive book on this is Damion Conway's "Object Oriented Perl". See page 56. The concept is subtle, and you have to read it a few times , even from an author as gifted as Damien.

There is an excerpt of the book here. but it does not cover using closures for persistence.

Here is an example of a closure without OO programming

package FOO;
{
    my $name = "InterGuru";
    sub get_name { return $name ;}
}

#note that $name no longer exists when you leave the block, but it is 
+preserved 
#in the sub
#  Using a sub to preserve a value that would ordinaraly go out of sco
+pe is a closure. 

#later from anywhere.


print &FOO::get_name, "\n";
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