Do you wish to get the directory in which a script is being executed FROM regardless of what the current working directory? If so, then $0 may be your savior.

if ($0=~/^(.+)\/.*/) { 
        $dir=$1; 
} 
else { 
        $dir="."; 
}
[download]

I'm sure there is a File::* module that will return the path (opposite of Basename), but it's real easy to roll your own. Of course this method doesn't account for Windows reverse directory seperators; but I'll leave that implementation as a exercise to the reader.