What's the difference between require and use?

Perl offers several different ways to include code from one file into another. Here are the deltas between the various inclusion constructs:

    1)  do $file is like eval `cat $file`, except the former
	1.1: searches @INC and updates %INC.
	1.2: bequeaths an *unrelated* lexical scope on the eval'ed code.
    2)  require $file is like do $file, except the former
	2.1: checks for redundant loading, skipping already loaded files.
	2.2: raises an exception on failure to find, compile, or execute $file.
    3)  require Module is like require "Module.pm", except the former
	3.1: translates each "::" into your system's directory separator.
	3.2: primes the parser to disambiguate class Module as an indirect object.
    4)  use Module is like require Module, except the former
	4.1: loads the module at compile time, not run-time.
	4.2: imports symbols and semantics from that package to the current one.
In general, you usually want use and a proper Perl module.
Back to perlfaq8