Is there some reason why warn and die would be very very slow?

[Sara]

I have some not-unusual warn and die statements in my perlcode. Im
using 5.8 on a linux RH8 box. The code runs fine, and even the warn
and die statements work (eventually). In the debugger, when I step
past the warn or die line, it takes from 15-30 seconds to actually
warn or die- in the meantime it just sits there thinking about that
one line. The rest of the code is blazing fast; the box is unloaded.

Here is a typical line:

warn "No CCX is defined in for ($ma)\n" unless defined $CCx{$ma};

Is there something peculiar about warn or die that would make them run
at this decellerated pace?

Thank-You in advance for your time and advice.

-Gx (wishing I was at OPEN SOURCE this week GRRRRRR)