use strict; use warnings; package Exception; package IOException; @IOException::ISA = qw(Exception); package OtherException; package YetAnotherException; package main; *isa = \&UNIVERSAL::isa; my @grisly = ( sub { die "AARRGH!\n" }, sub { die bless [], 'Exception' }, sub { die bless [], 'IOException' }, sub { die bless [], 'OtherException' }, sub { die bless [], 'YetAnotherException' }, sub { print "I live\n"; } ); sub do_something_that_could_die { $grisly[0]->(); # or int(rand(@grisly)) } eval { do_something_that_could_die(); }; if(isa($@, 'Exception')) { print ref($@), ' caught'; } elsif(isa($@, 'OtherException')) { print ref($@), ' caught'; } elsif(ref $@) { # handle any other exception object print ref($@), ' caught'; } elsif($@) { # handle non-object exception print $@; }