Thanks! I made some modifications and used the idea. Mine turned out something like:

 1  package Local::Multipath;
 ...
 45 my %mpByType;
 46
 47 sub new {
 48     my ($class, %opts) = @_;
 49     return bless \%opts, $class;
 50 }
 51
 52 sub factory {
 53     my (%opts) = @_;
 54     croak ("Missing parameters!") unless exists $opts{co};
 55     my $type = _whichType;
 56     my $module = "Local::Multipath::$type";
 57     {
 58         eval "use $module";
 59     }
 60     croak "Failed to load module $module: $@\n" if $@;
 61     $mpByType{$type}->new (%opts);
 62 }
 63
 64 sub REGISTER_TYPE {
 65     my ($type) = @_;
 66     my ($name) = $type =~ m/Multipath::(.*)/;
 67     $mpByType{$name} = $type;
 68 }
[download]

...

  1 package Local::Multipath::DMMP;
  2 use strict;
  3 use warnings;
  ...
  7
  8 REGISTER_TYPE Local::Multipath::DMMP;
  ...
[download]

... somewhere else in code land ...

my $mp = Local::Multipath::factory (co => $conf);
[download]

The _whichType function returns 'DMMP' or 'Powerpath' after sniffing around for what we actually have.

It's nearly the same as what you suggested, but I didn't need the added 'type' attribute in this case, so simpler.

I could almost get away without the REGISTER_TYPE, but it has the added appeal of not having to hard code the things Multipath can handle. Just add a new module like the DMMP module shown to add new capabilities;

Thanks for the suggestion: perfect synergy.