>>Are you actually just running some Perl scripts sequentially for which a shared data file might be an appropriate solution?

Yess.. the first script access's the second script..
and so on.. i need a variable from the first script
to be available to the last script.. but from what
ive seen so far.. variables dissapear when the script
pertaining to that variable has finished running.
So i don't need to share a data file.. just keep a
variable from the first script alive, or available 
for the last script.