Scalar $ENV in a package

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

Can anyone explain to me why the scalar $ENV doesn't show up in a package with its "fully-qualified" package name?

    % cat xxx.pl
    package script;

    $env = 1;
    $ENV = 2;

    print "\$env = '$env'\n";
    print "\$ENV = '$ENV'\n";
    print "\$script::env = '$script::env'\n";
    print "\$script::ENV = '$script::ENV'\n";
    % perl xxx.pl
    $env = '1'
    $ENV = '2'
    $script::env = '1'
    $script::ENV = ''
    %
[download]

I suppose this has something to do with the special status of %ENV, but that sure seems to run counter to the usual distinction between a same-named scalar and hash.

This behavior is consistent on Perl 5.00345 and 5.6.0, so it's not a version-specific bug, at least...

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Re: Scalar $ENV in a package by cianoz (Friar) on Oct 25, 2000 at 15:19 UTC
from "man perlvar" All Perl variables that begin with digits, control characters, or punctuation characters are exempt from the effects of the package declaration and are always forced to be in package main. A few other names are also exempt: ENV STDIN INC STDOUT ARGV STDERR ARGVOUT SIG so adding `print "\$main::ENV = '$main::ENV'\n";` [download] you get `$main::ENV = '2'` [download] as expected...	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Scalar $ENV in a package by knight (Friar) on Oct 25, 2000 at 15:10 UTC
Apologies for the misleading node-link in the posting; I didn't read my preview closely enough. That should have read, "This behavior is consistent on Perl 5.00[345] and 5.6.0..."	[reply]