The basic rule is that if die is called, your program terminates. As with all rules, this one has exceptions. eval is like a separate program. The eval call will terminate, but will not end your program.

However, it WILL call any handler you have defined in $SIG{__DIE__}. This is something you must keep in mind when writing a sigdie handler. Either check $^S, or don't plan on actually terminating. A large part of my post concerned the pitfalls surounding this point.