constant::our This pragma extends standard pragma 'constant'. INSTALLATION To install this module, run the following commands: perl Build.PL ./Build ./Build test ./Build install DESCRIPTION As you may know, when a constant is used in an expression, Perl replaces it with its value at compile time, and may then optimize the expression further. You can inspect this behavior by yourself: $ perl -MO=Deparse -e'use constant{DEBUG => 1}; warn "1"; if(DEBUG){warn "2"} warn 3;' use constant ({'DEBUG', 1}); warn '1'; do { warn '2' }; warn 3; All warns are here. $ perl -MO=Deparse -e'use constant{DEBUG => 0}; warn "1"; if(DEBUG){warn "2"} warn 3;' use constant ({'DEBUG', 0}); warn '1'; '???'; warn 3; Notice the '???' instead of the second 'warn'. So you can do something like this: # in the main script use constant DEBUG => 0; # in a module if(main::DEBUG) { # some debug code goes here } But you should declare all constants you use, you can't simply write if (main::DEBUG_SQL) { } without corresponding use constant DEBUG_SQL => 0; in the main script. With constant::our you can freely use "undeclared" constants in your condition statements. # main script use constant::our { DEBUG => 1, DEBUG_CACHE => 1, }; ###################### package My::Cool::Tools; use constant::our qw(DEBUG DEBUG_SQL); # don't need DEBUG_CACHE, but want (undeclared) DEBUG_SQL DEBUG && warn "DEBUG: $debug_info"; # DEBUG --> 1 DEBUG && DEBUG_SQL && warn "DEBUG_SQL: $query"; # DEBUG_SQL --> undef stderr: "DEBUG: ..." SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION After installing, you can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command. perldoc constant::our You can also look for information at: RT, CPAN's request tracker http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=constant::our AnnoCPAN, Annotated CPAN documentation http://annocpan.org/dist/constant::our CPAN Ratings http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/constant::our Search CPAN http://search.cpan.org/dist/constant::our COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE Copyright (C) 2009 Green This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.