---
name: "Perl::Critic::Policy::Variables::RequireLocalizedPunctuationVars"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "perl-perl-critic"
version: "1.156-3"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Perl::Critic::Policy::Variables::RequireLocalizedPunctuationVars"
---

# Perl::Critic::Policy::Variables::RequireLocalizedPunctuationVars(3pm)

Magic variables should be assigned as "local".

## NAME

Perl::Critic::Policy::Variables::RequireLocalizedPunctuationVars - Magic variables should be assigned as "local".

## AFFILIATION

This Policy is part of the core Perl::Critic distribution.

## DESCRIPTION

Punctuation variables (and their English.pm equivalents) are global variables.  Messing with globals is dangerous in a complex program as it can lead to very subtle and hard to fix bugs.  If you must change a magic variable in a non-trivial program, do it in a local scope.

For example, to slurp a filehandle into a scalar, it's common to set the record separator to undef instead of a newline.  If you choose to do this (instead of using Path::Tiny!) then be sure to localize the global and change it for as short a time as possible.

```
    # BAD:
    $/ = undef;
    my $content = <$fh>;
    # BETTER:
    my $content;
    {
        local $/ = undef;
        $content = <$fh>;
    }
    # A popular idiom:
    my $content = do { local $/ = undef; <$fh> };
```

This policy also allows the use of `"my"`.  Perl prevents using `"my"` with "proper" punctuation variables, but allows `$a`, `@ARGV`, the names declared by English, etc.  This is not a good coding practice, however it is not the concern of this specific policy to complain about that.

There are exemptions for `$_` and `@_`, and the English equivalent `$ARG`.

## CONFIGURATION

You can configure your own exemptions using the `"allow"` option:

```
    [Variables::RequireLocalizedPunctuationVars]
    allow = @ARGV $ARGV
```

These are added to the default exemptions.

## CREDITS

Initial development of this policy was supported by a grant from the Perl Foundation.

## AUTHOR

Chris Dolan \<cdolan@cpan.org\>

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2007-2011 Chris Dolan.  Many rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.  The full text of this license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.