overload::StrVal($var)

Update: I figured that'd be XS code and so wouldn't trigger DB::sub, but it is actually this rather simple Perl code (from overload.pm):

sub AddrRef {
  my $package = ref $_[0];
  return "$_[0]" unless $package;

    require Scalar::Util;
    my $class = Scalar::Util::blessed($_[0]);
    my $class_prefix = defined($class) ? "$class=" : "";
    my $type = Scalar::Util::reftype($_[0]);
    my $addr = Scalar::Util::refaddr($_[0]);
    return sprintf("$class_prefix$type(0x%x)", $addr);
}
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So you can just use that same technique yourself. Yes, reftype() and refaddr() are XS unless Scalar::Util fails to load its XS component, in which case it uses the Perl replacements found in Util.pm, which you could also copy (they rebless to avoid overload magic).

There's little sense in copying out of overload.pm - that module is core and is always available.

⠤⠤ ⠙⠊⠕⠞⠁⠇⠑⠧⠊

For one, "core" does not actually mean "always available". For another, copying what boils down to two lines of code isn't something I sweat much about.

But, perhaps most importantly, if one can't even use "$x" because it calls a subroutine, then I'm not sure one can, um, call a subroutine. I haven't tried to write a debugger but perldebguts says:

When execution of the program reaches a subroutine call, a call to &DB::sub(args) is made instead, with $DB::sub holding the name of the called subroutine. (This doesn't happen if the subroutine was compiled in the DB package.)

(emphasis added). So I think you might need to recompile those couple of lines of code into a different package in this case.

And I wouldn't be surprised if understanding the few key concepts presented in those several lines of code from the 3 subroutines wouldn't lead to a better way to integrate the concepts into the OP's code then would be possible by just calling those routines.

- tye        

I didn't understand exactly when I should set this flag and where, can you be a little more specific. The problem is that I didn't found a way yet to tell if a sub is called recursively from overloaded "".