$ ./perl -wle 'print my *x' *lexical::_GEN_0 $ ./perl -wle 'my *x = *foo; $foo = "Nice!"; print ${*x}' Nice! $ ./perl -wle 'my *x = *foo; my *y = *x; $foo = "Even nicer!"; print ${*y}' Even nicer! $ ./perl -wle 'my *x = \23; ${*x} = 24' Modification of a read-only value attempted at -e line 1. $ ./perl -wle 'my *x = \23; *foo = *x; print $foo; $foo = 24' 23 Modification of a read-only value attempted at -e line 1.