Re^3: Variable will not stay shared in a sporadically crashing CGI

[haukex]

you can just use our $cgi instead of my $cgi

Locutus: Please, avoid globals - the "best" way to do it is to pass $cgi as an argument to the subroutines.

[LanX]

I'd say the problem is inter-mixing lexicals my $cgi with package symbols like named subs like sub print_document

Changing to lexicals holding anonymous sub refs my $print_document = sub {} would solve the OP'S problem too.

Having persistent shared globals can be a desired effect. (Initialization overhead, communication channel)

[Anonymous Monk]

This is getting a bit off-topic, but some globals are ok. Novice programmers don't always know when they're safe and when they aren't, and they're often too timid to change a global to a local when it really needs to be done. That's why we advise people not to use globals at all. But CGI is probably safe as a global, because there's no reason to have two of them in your program.

[haukex]

But CGI is probably safe as a global, because there's no reason to have two of them in your program.

I absolutely agree with the general comment about some globals being ok if the coder knows what they are doing - but we are talking about mod_perl here, better to play it safe, and lexicals are arguably safer* in this case.

* Update: "safer" not in the sense of security, but in less chances for things to go wrong.