rtn_name in the context that you provided is nothing but something to be printed. In perl, variables are prefixed with a sigil (a funny symbol that denotes what type of variable it is). In this case, you have $NAME, which because of the sigil (a dollar sign) denotes that it is a scalar variable. Also, the line that you reference would print "rtn_name=<value of $NAME>" to whatever the script thinks is standard out. WIthout seeing more of the script, it's a bit difficult to diagnose anything further.