module looks like this: # $Id$ # dotcut utilities require Exporter; @ISA = qw(Exporter); my @smallwords = qw/for and on the in is an a if to at do or so of go am from/; @EXPORT = qw(@smallwords); # symbols to export on request 1; script looks like this: #!/usr/bin/perl # $Id: token-counter.pl,v 1.2 2005/05/04 08:59:00 chris Exp $ use Dotcut::Utils; use Dotcut::DB; use strict; $|++; &db_connect; # snip foreach(@smallwords){ <-- line 23 # do something } # snip } and the error looks like: Global symbol "$smallwords" requires explicit package name at ./token-counter.pl line 23.