$ cat test.pl use strict; use lib ('.'); use Test qw (get_data); use Data::Dumper; my $result = get_data(); print Dumper $result; $cat Test.pm package Test; use strict; require Exporter; our @ISA = qw(Exporter); our @EXPORT = qw(); our @EXPORT_OK = qw( get_data ); #------------- sub get_data { my $data = {a=>'b'}; } 1; $ perl test.pl $VAR1 = { 'a' => 'b' };