I have redhat 9 with mod_perl-1.99_07-5.
That's more than a year out of date, and many bugs have been fixed since then, as you can see here:
http://perl.apache.org/dist/mod_perl-2.0-current/Changes
If you plan to do anything much with it, you should upgrade to the most recent release (or switch to apache 1.x and mod_perl 1.x if you need a stable platform).
Without loading any other library than the one loaded with redhat, Is there a session variable and how can I hold a persistence object?
No, there is no concept of a session built into mod_perl. That's because mod_perl is an API for building apache modules in Perl, and doesn't make assumptions about how you want your application to work. There are easy-to-use session options available on CPAN. I'd suggest looking at CGI::Session or Apache::Session (both work with mod_perl) or a more complete development system like Apache::ASP (also on CPAN). Also, have a look here for more development frameworks that run on mod_perl:
http://perl.apache.org/products/app-server.html
- Perrin
