Fatal error only in debug modus

Ben Win Lue has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

O Wise Ones!

I am a bit at a loss. I'm using a linux test system together with some co-workers. The perl debugger is only used by me and I'm using it only now and then. So nobody recognized when the debugger ceased to work.

Any perl -d call will result in:

Can't modify constant item in scalar assignment at xxxx.pl line 0, nea
+r "0;"
BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted.
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Even things like

perl -d -e 'print "X"'
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throw this error message. Larger perl scripts, too. The error is always in line 0.
Without -d everything workes fine.

BTW: perl -v is printing:

This is perl, v5.8.8 built for x86_64-linux-thread-multi
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Thanks for any hint!

Comment on Fatal error only in debug modus Select or Download Code

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Re: Fatal error only in debug modus by TomDLux (Vicar) on Dec 28, 2010 at 16:04 UTC
If you make a syntax error in `print "X"`, for example leaving out one of the quotes, it is reported as an error in line 1. So line 0 errors must occur before getting to the expression to evaluate. I would check if you have aliased the perl command in some way. `$ alias perl perl: alias not found` [download] But you may find it defined to something, possibly involving `-e'0=1'`. As Occam said: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Fatal error only in debug modus by Argel (Prior) on Dec 28, 2010 at 18:58 UTC
Okay, I'll bite --- why would someone want to alias it like that? An obfuscated way to prevent users from running Perl? Practical joke (that would be a good one, might have to remember this one for April 1st)? Elda Taluta; Sarks Sark; Ark Arks	[reply]
Re^2: Fatal error only in debug modus by Ben Win Lue (Friar) on Dec 29, 2010 at 07:59 UTC
Thank you, brethren, for at least having a look at my problem. But noboday played an Aprils fool on me, there is no alias. Anyway, with that alias the error should occur without "-d" switch, too. Well, I already gave up looking for the reason of the debugging error and I'm spicing my beautiful code with nasty log prints. This way I might not need the debugger. Cheers and happy new year!	[reply]