CGI provides the import_names() method, which does nearly the same thing. It takes one argument, the name of the namespace into which to import the variables.

It also warns that this is a major security risk. If I happen to guess the name of one of your 'normal' variables and pass my own wicked bad parameters to your script, if you import into the main namespace, I can clobber any normal variable I can guess.

You cannot trust any of your normal variables after that happens. This is not something I recommend (and I seem to recall it's been responsible for a couple of security advisories for PHP, though I don't have a link offhand).

Use at your own risk.

Update: chipmunk says I should make it more clear that the security risk is importing variables into a package you're using. That's usually the main package, but any other package that doesn't expect it can be a victim.

In reply to Re: Automatic Parameters for CGIs by chromatic
in thread Automatic Parameters for CGIs by flocto

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