Another option is to move the user name and password out from the perl file into a configuration file, which would not need to be quoted there, and you gain the bonus of having your script a bit more secure, particularly from other users on the same system. For MySQL, you simply need a .mycfg in the home dir of the script's owner.

With mod_perl, you can also stick the username/password details into the http configuration file, but I would suspect that you'd need to quote them there as well.

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Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain