any issues with $DBI::err not getting cleared on a ->connect call?

[E R]

I'm working with some legacy perl code, and there is a lot of checking
of $DBI::err after a ->connect call:

# DBI bug workaround
my $previous_error = $DBI::err;
my $previous_error_str = $DBI::errstr;
eval {
  $dbh = DBI->connect(..., { AutoCommit => 1, RaiseError => 1,
PrintError => 0, LongReadLen => ..., LongTruncOk => 1 });
  if ($dbh && ($dbh->err || $dbh->errstr) && ($dbh->err eq
$previous_error || $dbh->errstr eq $previous_error_str) {
    $dbh->set_err(undef, undef);
  }
};
if (!$dbh || $@ || $DBI::err) {
  # something bad happened
}

Is any of this still necessary? Can I safely replace it with:

eval {
  $dbh = DBI->connect(...);
};
if (!$dbh || $@) {
  # something bad happened
}

It seems that at one point there were issues with $DBI::err not getting cleared.