Mucking around with module imports

Viko has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi folks,

I want to overload CGI.pm with some minor tweaks of mine. It has to have the same name (using use 'lib' or PERL5LIB to access mine first), due to the number of files I'd have to change in order to replace the original with mine. The problem is that my module has to call the original CGI.pm after it's done.

Any ideas? I've tried removing the lib path with a BEGIN block but that breaks other module imports that rely on my base lib path.

Here's some pseudo code:

use lib '/path/to/my/root/lib';
use CGI; #this one is mine, found under /path/to/my/root/lib/CGI.pm
# need to find a way to 'use', or 'use base' the original CGI.pm here

#... some code here to set $query_string...

return CGI->new($query_string); # this Lincoln Stein's CGI.pm
[download]

Thanks in advance,
Vinny.

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Re: Mucking around with module imports by moritz (Cardinal) on Jul 20, 2010 at 13:16 UTC
The simple answer is "don't". It will confused the heck out of everybody reading the code. That said, if you understand it's a stupid idea, and you're convinced that there's no betters solution (if you told us what your deeper problem is, maybe we could find one for you?), there are still two approaches: 1) edit the existing CGI.pm and add your changes. Optionally with copying to another location first. 2) you can try to remove CGI.pm from %INC, remove the paths where the current module was found from @INC, and then `use CGI;` and have fun. Perl 6 - links to (nearly) everything that is Perl 6.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Mucking around with module imports by chromatic (Archbishop) on Jul 20, 2010 at 16:06 UTC
It has to have the same name ... due to the number of files I'd have to change in order to replace the original with mine. Write a little `perl -pi -e 's/\bCGI\b/VinnyCGI/g'` program, run your tests, then check the diff in your VCS. The price you pay for this renaming is much less than the maintenance costs of this hack.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Mucking around with module imports by Anonymous Monk on Jul 20, 2010 at 13:07 UTC
Subclass	[reply]
Re^2: Mucking around with module imports by Viko (Acolyte) on Jul 20, 2010 at 13:11 UTC
?? Subclass as in 'use base'? How will `'use base qw{CGI}'` know that I want Lincoln Stein's CGI and not the first one it finds (mine, in my lib base, which is the first element of @INC) ?	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Mucking around with module imports by Anonymous Monk on Jul 20, 2010 at 13:18 UTC
Um, don't call your module CGI, call it VikoCGI or some such, the name is taken, don't ya know :)	[reply]