+our $root;
+
+# search local then perl directories
+BEGIN {
+ # root of directory tree for this system
+ $root = "/spider";
+ $root = $ENV{'DXSPIDER_ROOT'} if $ENV{'DXSPIDER_ROOT'};
+
+ unshift @INC, "$root/perl"; # this IS the right way round!
+ unshift @INC, "$root/local";
+}
+
+my $import = "$root/msg/import";
+my $tmp = "$root/tmp";