Bonus: Customization debugger is simply a library that takes advantage of hooks in Perl interpreter replace the debugger completely, if you like. cp /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1/perl5db.pl ~/myperl5db.pl BEGIN { require "~/myperl5db.pl" } or use alternative debuggers from the command-line DProf is included with perl5.6 - a profiler which uses debugger hooks. perl -d:DProf mycode.pl or use debugger hooks in your own programs $DB::single = 1; # set a breakpoint in your code see perldoc perldebug for more about hooks internal debugger configuration options set debugger options with O - only one useful example of this I know of: O pager=|more debugger configuration file: .perldb include perl code to run when debugger starts. such as modifying DB package variables: $DB::alias{'stop'} = 's/stop (at|in}/b/';