This module intercepts all writes to STDOUT and lets you frobnicate the data with your own functions. To install, do the usual dance: less Makefile.PL less lib/Tie/Hash/Longest.pm less t/* those being to ensure that I'm not being evil. Pay particular attention to t/01_defaults.t, as that generates code and executes it using system(). The fact that I can do this while you install a module demonstrates why you really need to pay attention to what's going on. I could just as easily do something horrible like trash your home directory. then do this to install the module: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install (you may need to do this as root)