$ perl -e"die __FILE__"
-e at -e line 1.

$ echo die __FILE__ > thefileis

$ perl -e"die __FILE__"
-e at -e line 1.

$ echo die __FILE__ > thefileis

$ perl thefileis
thefileis at thefileis line 1.

$ perl D:\thefileis
D:\thefileis at D:\thefileis line 1.

$
[download]

OK - so __FILE__ is the name of my script, but I will admit to not understanding what you're trying to do with it.

When I run your version of the BEGIN code, I get

Use of uninitialized value in string eq at /apps/bin/blah/reconcile_wi
+thdotsh.pl line 68.
        main::BEGIN() called at /apps/bin/blah/reconcile_withdotsh.pl 
+line 73
        eval {...} called at /apps/bin/blah/reconcile_withdotsh.pl lin
+e 73
[download]

where lines 68 and 73 are:

67 BEGIN {
68    unless( $ENV{ +__FILE__ } eq __FILE__ ){
69        delete $ENV{LIBPATH};     
70        $ENV{ +__FILE__ } = __FILE__;
71        exec $^X, __FILE__, @ARGV; # relaunch without LIBPATH
72    }
73}
[download]

It isn't __FILE__ that is the uninitialized value (as I put a print command in), so presumably its the "$ENV{ +__FILE__ }" but I can't manage to print that to check - and being in a BEGIN statement I can't step through it in debug.

Also, in both versions the script just ends (as opposed to terminating with an error).

Maybe I should be a heretic and go back to using COBOL on a mainframe! Do any still exist?

Cheers

Kev

When I run your version of the BEGIN code

Where'd you see that?

I get Use of uninitialized value in string eq

That's what happens when you use a variable to which you never assigned a value.

Also, in both versions the script just ends (as opposed to terminating with an error).

How did you determine that (as oppose to running successfully with no output)? If it's true, maybe whatever is messing with your Perl to cause it to give a stack trace for warnings — where's that eval come from? — is also messing with the process replacing itself.

The whole point of placing the code in BEGIN is to get it to execute as early as possible, yet the code is at line 67 of the script. Move that to line 1! There's no point in doing work before this check since it restarts the process from scratch.