SYNOPSIS use preload; # Foo::Bar will be require'd when $ENV{PRELOAD} is true preload Foo::Bar; sub mysub { # Foo::Bar will be require'd when $ENV{PRELOAD} is false load Foo::Bar; } DESCRIPTION STATUS: Experimental, interface will likely change. When running a script, especially one that has to start quickly, it's desirable to delay loading modules until it's actually used, to reduce startup overhead. When running a (preforking) daemon, it's usually desirable to preload modules at startup, so the daemon can then service clients without any further delay from loading modules, and the loading before forking means child processes can share the module code (reduced memory usage). This pragma module tries to offer the best of both worlds. This statement: use preload; will declare a constant PRELOAD (currently set to $ENV{PRELOAD}) and introduce two new keywords: preload and load. preload is defined to be: if (PRELOAD) { require $module } this means it will become a no-op when PRELOAD is false. On the other hand, load is defined to be: unless (PRELOAD) { require $module } this means it will become a no-op when PRELOAD is true. With this module you can avoid run-time penalty associated with conditional loading. SEE ALSO prefork Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Preload