This works for me without a bad message:

#!/usr/bin/perl
# vi:ts=4 sw=4 et:
use strict;
use warnings;


my $fname = $ARGV[0];

my $scan_foo = 1;


eval "use File::stat";
if ( $@ ) {
     $scan_foo = 0;
}

if ( $scan_foo ) {
    my $foobarzlot = sprintf("%d", File::stat::stat($fname)->size );
    print "FOOBARZLOT=" . $foobarzlot . $/;
}

__END__
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update1: 1st answer removed due to bad reading of OP

update2: adjusted code to better match original code example

Sorry, it works for me.

If I execute your code exactly as you wrote it I obtain>

I avoided this adding a "close FILE;" at the end and it works w/o errors.

If I substitute FOO::bar with the name of an existing module (namely Data::Dumper) and the conditional code with

if ($can_foo) {
  print Dumper(undef);
}
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I get:

which is correct too.

Perhaps the problem you get is NOT independant from which module you try and load.

Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way, but your comment,

I have a list of modules I want to use, but only if they're available (i.e. installed on the system the script is running on and included in @INC). If they're not available, I want the code that calls them to be skipped. .... I have about ten different modules I need to use or not-use based on availability.

has me perplexed.

What will your script do (aside from skipping calls) when it runs on a system lacking the modules?

Are you going to reinvent the wheel for each missing module (on who knows how many systems)? Are you going to lift the code from pure perl, non-core modules and insert it in your package? Is one of those or some other workaround in your plan, so your script will function without regard to the target system's lack of one or more of your ten modules.

And how do you plan to distribute your script? (My suspicion is that if you can distribute it and have the sysadmin/owner agree to employ it, you can find a means to get the missing modules installed.)

In short: You've stated your perceived problem clearly, but is it the real problem? (Cf: jdporter's excellent XY Problem.

I found this node while looking for a way to do exactly what the OP is trying to do, and I believe there are legitimate reasons to do such a thing.

For example, sometimes you want to use whichever XML parsing module is available.

Or maybe you want to provide enhanced functionality to people who have some special module installed. Term::ReadLine, for example, lets people on GNU systems do more stuff.

I need additional modules to reliably guess stuff; my script asks the user for confirmation anyway, so if a good guess is not available — it's not a huge problem, we'll just ask the user.

use HTML::Perlinfo::Modules;

my $m = HTML::Perlinfo::Modules->new();
my $module = $m->print_modules( show_only => qr/FOO::bar/i );

if ($module) {
  my $foobarzlot=sprintf("%d,",bar(FILE)->zlot);
  print "FOOBARZLOT=".$foobarzlot."\n";
}
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my $modules = $m->print_modules( show_only => qr/FOO::bar|File::Which|
+File::stat/i );
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# This BEGIN block avoids including File::DosGlob::Param for non-windo
+ws systems
BEGIN
{
  if ( $^O =~ /win/i )
  {
    require File::DosGlob::Param;
    import  File::DosGlob::Param qw( dosglob );
  }
}

# convert filename wildcards to actual filenames
if ( $^O =~ /win/i ) # only if DOS
{
  if ( exists( $INC{'File/DosGlob/Param.pm'} ) ) # only if loaded
  {
    dosglob( "Array_Ref" => \@ARGV, 
             "Remove_Empty_Matches" => 1,
             "Warn_On_Empty_Matches" => 1 );
  }
  END
  {
    if ( ( $^O =~ /win/i )
     and not exists( $INC{'File/DosGlob/Param.pm'} ) )
    {
      warn "Consider installing module File::DosGlob::Param...\n";
    }
  }
}
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