a) I find it difficult to see just how much code you'd have to change for a change in connect calling (how many calls to connect can you have scattered around)

It's difficult for me too. In this case it would be one script on 2 machine. But since there are several similar scripts I would have to find out which ones should be changed too. And then those scripts are used on otehr machines to and to keep it consistant I would have to apply the changes to the other n-hundred machines too.

b) you have not ascertained where the problem is yet and

Correct. Except that it fails as soon as DBI::connect is executed.

c) the use of "stupid bug" doesn't seem too productive

not productive, but descriptive ;-)

But to answer your question: It never worked on that machine (Intel Solaris). I just copied over a perl from another intel machine. There it fails too. I didn't "install" nor compile anything. It's work done by others in this big company I work for. I already told them but they have no time yet, fixing the bug.

sqlpls works perfectly on the machine. But I can't compile on the machine as there are no compilers (not allowed).

BTW: Even connecting with a host given, is not working perfectly as the connect itself needs aboz 70 seconds.

Thanks for your tips. I will have to talk to the one who compiled perl.