这个Perl代码有什么作用？

# The BEGIN block is explained in perldoc perlmod

BEGIN {
    # Prefix all dirs already in the include path,with root's perl path if it exists,or the
    # current user's perl path if not and make perl look for modules in those paths first:
    # Example: 
    #     "/usr/lib/perl" => "/home/root/perl/usr/lib/perl,/usr/lib/perl"

    my $root_user_perl_dir = '/home/root/perl';

    # Fetch user home dir in a non-intuitive way:
    # my $user_perl_dir = ( getpwuid($>) )[7] . '/perl/');

    # Fetch user home dir slightly more intuitive:
    my $current_userid        = $>; # EFFECTIVE_USER_ID see perldoc perlvar
    # See perldoc perlfunc / perldoc -f getpwuid
    my ($name,$passwd,$uid,$gid,$quota,$comment,$gcos,$dir,$shell,$expire) 
        = getpwuid($current_userid); 
    my $current_user_home_dir = $dir; 
    my $user_perl_dir         = $current_user_home_dir . '/perl/';

    my $base_module_dir = '';

    if (-d $root_user_perl_dir ) { 
        # Use this if the path exists
        $base_module_dir = $root_user_perl_dir;
    }
    else { 
        # or fallback to current user's path
        $base_module_dir = $user_perl_dir;
    }

    # Generate the new paths
    my @prefixed_INC = map { $base_module_dir . $_ } @INC;

    # Add the generated paths in front of the existing ones.
    @INC = (@prefixed_INC,@INC); 
}