i've added an $r->user method as an alias to $r->connection->user, now that `user' hangs off of the request_rec rather than request_rec->connection in Apache 2.0 so by the time mod_perl-2.0 is ready to use, auth modules can work with both versions. for backwards compat you can use something like: use constant R_USER => $mod_perl::VERSION >= 1.24_01; my $user = R_USER ? $r->user : $r->connection->user; which of course is optimized by the Perl compiler down to: my $user = $r->user; or my $user = $r->connection->user; for older versions. then again, by the time mod_perl-2.0 is ready you should be safe to say: use mod_perl 1.25; #require version 1.25 or higher my $user = $r->user;