What global variables affect the -e, -d file test operators in Perl?

Question

I am having issues getting the -e and -d file test operators to work reliably.

Listings 1 and 2 are in the same directory, on an NTFS Windows XP SP 3 system. However, Listing 2 insists that a directory exists(it doesn't), and Listing 1 gets it right. Listing 2 is part of the main program.

Also, interesting, my logger routine is refusing to create/write to a file, even when I trap open and print with or croak statements. I suspect the two are connected. I've included that as Listing 3.

My opinion is Perl's global variables are getting unset/set somewhere and I managed to fry them(although I've tried to be very careful).

Thanks!

Listing 1:

use strict;
use warnings;

my $dir = "somedir2";

my $result= (-e $dir);

if( ! (-e $dir))
{
     print "$dir doesn't exist\n";
}
else 
{
     print "$dir exists\n";
}

#print "$result\n";


if(! (-d $dir))
{
     print "$dir isn't a dir!\n";
}
else
{
     print "$dir is a dir\n";
}

Listing 2:

#Does the output directory not exist?
    open_logger("logfile.txt");
    logger("initializing logfile.");
    logger("Checking $outputdir for existence...");
   if( ! ( -e $outputdir))
   {
      logger("$outputdir doesn't exist...creating");
      #if so, then create it
      if( ! mkdir($outputdir))
      {
         $result = "Could not create $outputdir: $!";
      logger("Could not create $outputdir: $!");
         return ($success, $result);
      }
      logger("Created $outputdir");
   }
    else
    {
      logger("$outputdir exists...");
    }

   #is the directory not a directory? then die - something's off.
   if( ! ( -d $outputdir))
   {
      $result = "Failure: output directory $outputdir not a directory!\n";
     logger("$outputdir isn't a directory");
      return ($success, $result);
   }

Listing 3:

     my $fh_logger_package;
sub open_logger
{
     my $filename = shift;
     open(FILE, ">$filename") or croak("Could not init logfile: $!");
     $fh_logger_package = \*FILE;
     print STDERR "Opened $filename\n";
     if( ! (-e $filename))
     {
       croak("Crikey! Did not create file!");
     }
}
sub logger
{
     my $message = shift;

     print STDERR $message . "\n";
     print $fh_logger_package $message . "\n" or croak("Could not print to filehandle...");
}

Answer 1

-e and -d aren't affected by any variables, but if you are not specifying the full path, then they check relative to the current working directory. It is possible that the code is either being started from a different location or changes the directory it is in itself.