FindBin for perl modules that reside in my script's directory

Question

I have a script that uses modules that are external to the standard Perl library and would like for some way to use them. I don't have permissions to install them into the Perl lib directory and was wondering if I could just have these external modules reside in my scripts directory.

I have read about using FindBin but it seems to not work. Am I using it correctly?

Right now I want to use 3 modules I want to use (2 being directories). So lets say my script is in Dir1, then my modules will be in a subdirectory of Dir1 called Dir2.

So assuming FindBin finds Dir1, then all I have to do is this?

use FindBin '$Bin';
use Dir2 "$Bin/Dir2";
use Dir2::SubDir_ofDir2_1::Module1;
use Dir2::Module2;
use Dir2::Module3;

My program seems to run but it doesn't do anything. So I am pretty sure it is not importing the modules correctly.

Thanks

Consider [local::lib](http://p3rl.org/local::lib) instead. From the [Stack Overflow Perl FAQ](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/perl?sort=faq): [How can I use CPAN as a non-root user?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2980297/how-can-i-use-cpan-as-a-non-root-user) — daxim, Dec 11 '11 at 19:19

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 11 '11 at 19:08

The proper way to do it would more likely be either:

use lib "$FindBin::Bin/Dir2";
use SubDir::Module1;

or:

use lib $FindBin::Bin;
use Dir2::Subdir::Module;

Both would find the files, behavior would then depend on whether the modules declare themselves as inside package Dir2 or not.

Check out FindBin and lib's documentation.

FindBin for perl modules that reside in my script's directory

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