for my $wheel (qw/basename dirname/) { no strict 'refs'; *$wheel = sub { my ($dir) = shift; my ($path, $name) = ($dir =~ m{(.*)/([^/]*)$}); if ($wheel eq 'basename') { return $name; } else { return $path; } }; } my $path = dirname('/tmp/foo/bar'); my $name = basename('/tmp/foo/bar'); print "$path/$name\n";