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perlfaq7 (1)

Name

perlfaq7 - General Perl Language Issues

Synopsis

Please see following description for synopsis

Description




Perl Programmers Reference Guide                      PERLFAQ7(1)



NAME
     perlfaq7 - General Perl Language Issues

DESCRIPTION
     This section deals with general Perl language issues that
     don't clearly fit into any of the other sections.

  Can I get a BNF/yacc/RE for the Perl language?
     There is no BNF, but you can paw your way through the yacc
     grammar in perly.y in the source distribution if you're
     particularly brave.  The grammar relies on very smart
     tokenizing code, so be prepared to venture into toke.c as
     well.

     In the words of Chaim Frenkel: "Perl's grammar can not be
     reduced to BNF.  The work of parsing perl is distributed
     between yacc, the lexer, smoke and mirrors."

  What are all these $@%&* punctuation signs, and how do I know
     when to use them?
     They are type specifiers, as detailed in perldata:

             $ for scalar values (number, string or reference)
             @ for arrays
             % for hashes (associative arrays)
             & for subroutines (aka functions, procedures, methods)
             * for all types of that symbol name.  In version 4 you used them like
               pointers, but in modern perls you can just use references.

     There are couple of other symbols that you're likely to
     encounter that aren't really type specifiers:

             <> are used for inputting a record from a filehandle.
             \  takes a reference to something.

     Note that <FILE> is neither the type specifier for files nor
     the name of the handle.  It is the "<>" operator applied to
     the handle FILE.  It reads one line (well, record--see "$/"
     in perlvar) from the handle FILE in scalar context, or all
     lines in list context.  When performing open, close, or any
     other operation besides "<>" on files, or even when talking
     about the handle, do not use the brackets.  These are
     correct: "eof(FH)", "seek(FH, 0, 2)" and "copying from STDIN
     to FILE".

  Do I always/never have to quote my strings or use semicolons
     and commas?
     Normally, a bareword doesn't need to be quoted, but in most
     cases probably should be (and must be under "use strict").
     But a hash key consisting of a simple word (that isn't the
     name of a defined subroutine) and the left-hand operand to
     the "=>" operator both count as though they were quoted:



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             This                    is like this
             ------------            ---------------
             $foo{line}              $foo{'line'}
             bar => stuff            'bar' => stuff

     The final semicolon in a block is optional, as is the final
     comma in a list.  Good style (see perlstyle) says to put
     them in except for one-liners:

             if ($whoops) { exit 1 }
             @nums = (1, 2, 3);

             if ($whoops) {
                     exit 1;
             }

             @lines = (
             "There Beren came from mountains cold",
             "And lost he wandered under leaves",
             );

  How do I skip some return values?
     One way is to treat the return values as a list and index
     into it:

             $dir = (getpwnam($user))[7];

     Another way is to use undef as an element on the left-hand-
     side:

             ($dev, $ino, undef, undef, $uid, $gid) = stat($file);

     You can also use a list slice to select only the elements
     that you need:

             ($dev, $ino, $uid, $gid) = ( stat($file) )[0,1,4,5];

  How do I temporarily block warnings?
     If you are running Perl 5.6.0 or better, the "use warnings"
     pragma allows fine control of what warning are produced.
     See perllexwarn for more details.

             {
             no warnings;          # temporarily turn off warnings
             $a = $b + $c;         # I know these might be undef
             }

     Additionally, you can enable and disable categories of
     warnings.  You turn off the categories you want to ignore
     and you can still get other categories of warnings.  See
     perllexwarn for the complete details, including the category
     names and hierarchy.



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             {
             no warnings 'uninitialized';
             $a = $b + $c;
             }

     If you have an older version of Perl, the $^W variable
     (documented in perlvar) controls runtime warnings for a
     block:

             {
             local $^W = 0;        # temporarily turn off warnings
             $a = $b + $c;         # I know these might be undef
             }

     Note that like all the punctuation variables, you cannot
     currently use my() on $^W, only local().

  What's an extension?
     An extension is a way of calling compiled C code from Perl.
     Reading perlxstut is a good place to learn more about
     extensions.

  Why do Perl operators have different precedence than C
     operators?
     Actually, they don't.  All C operators that Perl copies have
     the same precedence in Perl as they do in C.  The problem is
     with operators that C doesn't have, especially functions
     that give a list context to everything on their right, eg.
     print, chmod, exec, and so on.  Such functions are called
     "list operators" and appear as such in the precedence table
     in perlop.

     A common mistake is to write:

             unlink $file || die "snafu";

     This gets interpreted as:

             unlink ($file || die "snafu");

     To avoid this problem, either put in extra parentheses or
     use the super low precedence "or" operator:

             (unlink $file) || die "snafu";
             unlink $file or die "snafu";

     The "English" operators ("and", "or", "xor", and "not")
     deliberately have precedence lower than that of list
     operators for just such situations as the one above.

     Another operator with surprising precedence is
     exponentiation.  It binds more tightly even than unary



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     minus, making "-2**2" produce a negative not a positive
     four.  It is also right-associating, meaning that "2**3**2"
     is two raised to the ninth power, not eight squared.

     Although it has the same precedence as in C, Perl's "?:"
     operator produces an lvalue.  This assigns $x to either $a
     or $b, depending on the trueness of $maybe:

             ($maybe ? $a : $b) = $x;

  How do I declare/create a structure?
     In general, you don't "declare" a structure.  Just use a
     (probably anonymous) hash reference.  See perlref and
     perldsc for details.  Here's an example:

             $person = {};                   # new anonymous hash
             $person->{AGE}  = 24;           # set field AGE to 24
             $person->{NAME} = "Nat";        # set field NAME to "Nat"

     If you're looking for something a bit more rigorous, try
     perltoot.

  How do I create a module?
     (contributed by brian d foy)

     perlmod, perlmodlib, perlmodstyle explain modules in all the
     gory details. perlnewmod gives a brief overview of the
     process along with a couple of suggestions about style.

     If you need to include C code or C library interfaces in
     your module, you'll need h2xs.  h2xs will create the module
     distribution structure and the initial interface files
     you'll need.  perlxs and perlxstut explain the details.

     If you don't need to use C code, other tools such as
     ExtUtils::ModuleMaker and Module::Starter, can help you
     create a skeleton module distribution.

     You may also want to see Sam Tregar's "Writing Perl Modules
     for CPAN" ( http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=14 )
     which is the best hands-on guide to creating module
     distributions.

  How do I adopt or take over a module already on CPAN?
     (contributed by brian d foy)

     The easiest way to take over a module is to have the current
     module maintainer either make you a co-maintainer or
     transfer the module to you.

     If you can't reach the author for some reason (e.g. email
     bounces), the PAUSE admins at modules@perl.org can help. The



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     PAUSE admins treat each case individually.

     o   Get a login for the Perl Authors Upload Server (PAUSE)
         if you don't already have one: http://pause.perl.org

     o   Write to modules@perl.org explaining what you did to
         contact the current maintainer. The PAUSE admins will
         also try to reach the maintainer.

     o   Post a public message in a heavily trafficked site
         announcing your intention to take over the module.

     o   Wait a bit. The PAUSE admins don't want to act too
         quickly in case the current maintainer is on holiday. If
         there's no response to private communication or the
         public post, a PAUSE admin can transfer it to you.

  How do I create a class?
     (contributed by brian d foy)

     In Perl, a class is just a package, and methods are just
     subroutines.  Perl doesn't get more formal than that and
     lets you set up the package just the way that you like it
     (that is, it doesn't set up anything for you).

     The Perl documentation has several tutorials that cover
     class creation, including perlboot (Barnyard Object Oriented
     Tutorial), perltoot (Tom's Object Oriented Tutorial),
     perlbot (Bag o' Object Tricks), and perlobj.

  How can I tell if a variable is tainted?
     You can use the tainted() function of the Scalar::Util
     module, available from CPAN (or included with Perl since
     release 5.8.0).  See also "Laundering and Detecting Tainted
     Data" in perlsec.

  What's a closure?
     Closures are documented in perlref.

     Closure is a computer science term with a precise but hard-
     to-explain meaning. Usually, closures are implemented in
     Perl as anonymous subroutines with lasting references to
     lexical variables outside their own scopes. These lexicals
     magically refer to the variables that were around when the
     subroutine was defined (deep binding).

     Closures are most often used in programming languages where
     you can have the return value of a function be itself a
     function, as you can in Perl. Note that some languages
     provide anonymous functions but are not capable of providing
     proper closures: the Python language, for example.  For more
     information on closures, check out any textbook on



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     functional programming.  Scheme is a language that not only
     supports but encourages closures.

     Here's a classic non-closure function-generating function:

             sub add_function_generator {
                     return sub { shift() + shift() };
                     }

             $add_sub = add_function_generator();
             $sum = $add_sub->(4,5);                # $sum is 9 now.

     The anonymous subroutine returned by
     add_function_generator() isn't technically a closure because
     it refers to no lexicals outside its own scope.  Using a
     closure gives you a function template with some
     customization slots left out to be filled later.

     Contrast this with the following make_adder() function, in
     which the returned anonymous function contains a reference
     to a lexical variable outside the scope of that function
     itself.  Such a reference requires that Perl return a proper
     closure, thus locking in for all time the value that the
     lexical had when the function was created.

             sub make_adder {
                     my $addpiece = shift;
                     return sub { shift() + $addpiece };
             }

             $f1 = make_adder(20);
             $f2 = make_adder(555);

     Now "&$f1($n)" is always 20 plus whatever $n you pass in,
     whereas "&$f2($n)" is always 555 plus whatever $n you pass
     in.  The $addpiece in the closure sticks around.

     Closures are often used for less esoteric purposes.  For
     example, when you want to pass in a bit of code into a
     function:

             my $line;
             timeout( 30, sub { $line = <STDIN> } );

     If the code to execute had been passed in as a string,
     '$line = <STDIN>', there would have been no way for the
     hypothetical timeout() function to access the lexical
     variable $line back in its caller's scope.

     Another use for a closure is to make a variable private to a
     named subroutine, e.g. a counter that gets initialized at
     creation time of the sub and can only be modified from



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     within the sub.  This is sometimes used with a BEGIN block
     in package files to make sure a variable doesn't get meddled
     with during the lifetime of the package:

             BEGIN {
                     my $id = 0;
                     sub next_id { ++$id }
             }

     This is discussed in more detail in perlsub, see the entry
     on Persistent Private Variables.

  What is variable suicide and how can I prevent it?
     This problem was fixed in perl 5.004_05, so preventing it
     means upgrading your version of perl. ;)

     Variable suicide is when you (temporarily or permanently)
     lose the value of a variable.  It is caused by scoping
     through my() and local() interacting with either closures or
     aliased foreach() iterator variables and subroutine
     arguments.  It used to be easy to inadvertently lose a
     variable's value this way, but now it's much harder.  Take
     this code:

             my $f = 'foo';
             sub T {
                     while ($i++ < 3) { my $f = $f; $f .= "bar"; print $f, "\n" }
                     }

             T;
             print "Finally $f\n";

     If you are experiencing variable suicide, that "my $f" in
     the subroutine doesn't pick up a fresh copy of the $f whose
     value is <foo>. The output shows that inside the subroutine
     the value of $f leaks through when it shouldn't, as in this
     output:

             foobar
             foobarbar
             foobarbarbar
             Finally foo

     The $f that has "bar" added to it three times should be a
     new $f "my $f" should create a new lexical variable each
     time through the loop.  The expected output is:

             foobar
             foobar
             foobar
             Finally foo




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  How can I pass/return a {Function, FileHandle, Array, Hash,
     Method, Regex}?
     You need to pass references to these objects.  See "Pass by
     Reference" in perlsub for this particular question, and
     perlref for information on references.

     Passing Variables and Functions
         Regular variables and functions are quite easy to pass:
         just pass in a reference to an existing or anonymous
         variable or function:

                 func( \$some_scalar );

                 func( \@some_array  );
                 func( [ 1 .. 10 ]   );

                 func( \%some_hash   );
                 func( { this => 10, that => 20 }   );

                 func( \&some_func   );
                 func( sub { $_[0] ** $_[1] }   );

     Passing Filehandles
         As of Perl 5.6, you can represent filehandles with
         scalar variables which you treat as any other scalar.

                 open my $fh, $filename or die "Cannot open $filename! $!";
                 func( $fh );

                 sub func {
                         my $passed_fh = shift;

                         my $line = <$passed_fh>;
                         }

         Before Perl 5.6, you had to use the *FH or "\*FH"
         notations.  These are "typeglobs"--see "Typeglobs and
         Filehandles" in perldata and especially "Pass by
         Reference" in perlsub for more information.

     Passing Regexes
         Here's an example of how to pass in a string and a
         regular expression for it to match against. You
         construct the pattern with the "qr//" operator:

                 sub compare($$) {
                         my ($val1, $regex) = @_;
                         my $retval = $val1 =~ /$regex/;
                 return $retval;
                 }
                 $match = compare("old McDonald", qr/d.*D/i);




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     Passing Methods
         To pass an object method into a subroutine, you can do
         this:

                 call_a_lot(10, $some_obj, "methname")
                 sub call_a_lot {
                         my ($count, $widget, $trick) = @_;
                         for (my $i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) {
                                 $widget->$trick();
                         }
                 }

         Or, you can use a closure to bundle up the object, its
         method call, and arguments:

                 my $whatnot =  sub { $some_obj->obfuscate(@args) };
                 func($whatnot);
                 sub func {
                         my $code = shift;
                         &$code();
                 }

         You could also investigate the can() method in the
         UNIVERSAL class (part of the standard perl
         distribution).

  How do I create a static variable?
     (contributed by brian d foy)

     In Perl 5.10, declare the variable with "state". The "state"
     declaration creates the lexical variable that persists
     between calls to the subroutine:

             sub counter { state $count = 1; $counter++ }

     You can fake a static variable by using a lexical variable
     which goes out of scope. In this example, you define the
     subroutine "counter", and it uses the lexical variable
     $count. Since you wrap this in a BEGIN block, $count is
     defined at compile-time, but also goes out of scope at the
     end of the BEGIN block. The BEGIN block also ensures that
     the subroutine and the value it uses is defined at compile-
     time so the subroutine is ready to use just like any other
     subroutine, and you can put this code in the same place as
     other subroutines in the program text (i.e. at the end of
     the code, typically). The subroutine "counter" still has a
     reference to the data, and is the only way you can access
     the value (and each time you do, you increment the value).
     The data in chunk of memory defined by $count is private to
     "counter".





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             BEGIN {
                     my $count = 1;
                     sub counter { $count++ }
             }

             my $start = counter();

             .... # code that calls counter();

             my $end = counter();

     In the previous example, you created a function-private
     variable because only one function remembered its reference.
     You could define multiple functions while the variable is in
     scope, and each function can share the "private" variable.
     It's not really "static" because you can access it outside
     the function while the lexical variable is in scope, and
     even create references to it. In this example,
     "increment_count" and "return_count" share the variable. One
     function adds to the value and the other simply returns the
     value.  They can both access $count, and since it has gone
     out of scope, there is no other way to access it.

             BEGIN {
                     my $count = 1;
                     sub increment_count { $count++ }
                     sub return_count    { $count }
             }

     To declare a file-private variable, you still use a lexical
     variable.  A file is also a scope, so a lexical variable
     defined in the file cannot be seen from any other file.

     See "Persistent Private Variables" in perlsub for more
     information.  The discussion of closures in perlref may help
     you even though we did not use anonymous subroutines in this
     answer. See "Persistent Private Variables" in perlsub for
     details.

  What's the difference between dynamic and lexical (static)
     scoping?  Between local() and my()?
     "local($x)" saves away the old value of the global variable
     $x and assigns a new value for the duration of the
     subroutine which is visible in other functions called from
     that subroutine.  This is done at run-time, so is called
     dynamic scoping.  local() always affects global variables,
     also called package variables or dynamic variables.

     "my($x)" creates a new variable that is only visible in the
     current subroutine.  This is done at compile-time, so it is
     called lexical or static scoping.  my() always affects
     private variables, also called lexical variables or



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     (improperly) static(ly scoped) variables.

     For instance:

             sub visible {
                     print "var has value $var\n";
                     }

             sub dynamic {
                     local $var = 'local';   # new temporary value for the still-global
                     visible();              #   variable called $var
                     }

             sub lexical {
                     my $var = 'private';    # new private variable, $var
                     visible();              # (invisible outside of sub scope)
                     }

             $var = 'global';

             visible();                      # prints global
             dynamic();                      # prints local
             lexical();                      # prints global

     Notice how at no point does the value "private" get printed.
     That's because $var only has that value within the block of
     the lexical() function, and it is hidden from called
     subroutine.

     In summary, local() doesn't make what you think of as
     private, local variables.  It gives a global variable a
     temporary value.  my() is what you're looking for if you
     want private variables.

     See "Private Variables via my()" in perlsub and "Temporary
     Values via local()" in perlsub for excruciating details.

  How can I access a dynamic variable while a similarly named
     lexical is in scope?
     If you know your package, you can just mention it
     explicitly, as in $Some_Pack::var. Note that the notation
     $::var is not the dynamic $var in the current package, but
     rather the one in the "main" package, as though you had
     written $main::var.

             use vars '$var';
             local $var = "global";
             my    $var = "lexical";

             print "lexical is $var\n";
             print "global  is $main::var\n";




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     Alternatively you can use the compiler directive our() to
     bring a dynamic variable into the current lexical scope.

             require 5.006; # our() did not exist before 5.6
             use vars '$var';

             local $var = "global";
             my $var    = "lexical";

             print "lexical is $var\n";

             {
                     our $var;
                     print "global  is $var\n";
             }

  What's the difference between deep and shallow binding?
     In deep binding, lexical variables mentioned in anonymous
     subroutines are the same ones that were in scope when the
     subroutine was created.  In shallow binding, they are
     whichever variables with the same names happen to be in
     scope when the subroutine is called.  Perl always uses deep
     binding of lexical variables (i.e., those created with
     my()).  However, dynamic variables (aka global, local, or
     package variables) are effectively shallowly bound.
     Consider this just one more reason not to use them.  See the
     answer to "What's a closure?".

  Why doesn't "my($foo) = <FILE>;" work right?
     "my()" and "local()" give list context to the right hand
     side of "=".  The <FH> read operation, like so many of
     Perl's functions and operators, can tell which context it
     was called in and behaves appropriately.  In general, the
     scalar() function can help.  This function does nothing to
     the data itself (contrary to popular myth) but rather tells
     its argument to behave in whatever its scalar fashion is.
     If that function doesn't have a defined scalar behavior,
     this of course doesn't help you (such as with sort()).

     To enforce scalar context in this particular case, however,
     you need merely omit the parentheses:

             local($foo) = <FILE>;       # WRONG
             local($foo) = scalar(<FILE>);   # ok
             local $foo  = <FILE>;       # right

     You should probably be using lexical variables anyway,
     although the issue is the same here:

             my($foo) = <FILE>;      # WRONG
             my $foo  = <FILE>;      # right




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  How do I redefine a builtin function, operator, or method?
     Why do you want to do that? :-)

     If you want to override a predefined function, such as
     open(), then you'll have to import the new definition from a
     different module.  See "Overriding Built-in Functions" in
     perlsub.  There's also an example in "Class::Template" in
     perltoot.

     If you want to overload a Perl operator, such as "+" or
     "**", then you'll want to use the "use overload" pragma,
     documented in overload.

     If you're talking about obscuring method calls in parent
     classes, see "Overridden Methods" in perltoot.

  What's the difference between calling a function as &foo and
     foo()?
     (contributed by brian d foy)

     Calling a subroutine as &foo with no trailing parentheses
     ignores the prototype of "foo" and passes it the current
     value of the argument list, @_. Here's an example; the "bar"
     subroutine calls &foo, which prints its arguments list:

             sub bar { &foo }

             sub foo { print "Args in foo are: @_\n" }

             bar( qw( a b c ) );

     When you call "bar" with arguments, you see that "foo" got
     the same @_:

             Args in foo are: a b c

     Calling the subroutine with trailing parentheses, with or
     without arguments, does not use the current @_ and respects
     the subroutine prototype. Changing the example to put
     parentheses after the call to "foo" changes the program:

             sub bar { &foo() }

             sub foo { print "Args in foo are: @_\n" }

             bar( qw( a b c ) );

     Now the output shows that "foo" doesn't get the @_ from its
     caller.

             Args in foo are:




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     The main use of the @_ pass-through feature is to write
     subroutines whose main job it is to call other subroutines
     for you. For further details, see perlsub.

  How do I create a switch or case statement?
     In Perl 5.10, use the "given-when" construct described in
     perlsyn:

             use 5.010;

             given ( $string ) {
                     when( 'Fred' )        { say "I found Fred!" }
                     when( 'Barney' )      { say "I found Barney!" }
                     when( /Bamm-?Bamm/ )  { say "I found Bamm-Bamm!" }
                     default               { say "I don't recognize the name!" }
                     };

     If one wants to use pure Perl and to be compatible with Perl
     versions prior to 5.10, the general answer is to use
     "if-elsif-else":

             for ($variable_to_test) {
                     if    (/pat1/)  { }     # do something
                     elsif (/pat2/)  { }     # do something else
                     elsif (/pat3/)  { }     # do something else
                     else            { }     # default
                     }

     Here's a simple example of a switch based on pattern
     matching, lined up in a way to make it look more like a
     switch statement.  We'll do a multiway conditional based on
     the type of reference stored in $whatchamacallit:

         SWITCH: for (ref $whatchamacallit) {

             /^$/            && die "not a reference";

             /SCALAR/        && do {
                                     print_scalar($$ref);
                                     last SWITCH;
                             };

             /ARRAY/         && do {
                                     print_array(@$ref);
                                     last SWITCH;
                             };

             /HASH/          && do {
                                     print_hash(%$ref);
                                     last SWITCH;
                             };




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             /CODE/          && do {
                                     warn "can't print function ref";
                                     last SWITCH;
                             };

             # DEFAULT

             warn "User defined type skipped";

         }

     See perlsyn for other examples in this style.

     Sometimes you should change the positions of the constant
     and the variable.  For example, let's say you wanted to test
     which of many answers you were given, but in a case-
     insensitive way that also allows abbreviations.  You can use
     the following technique if the strings all start with
     different characters or if you want to arrange the matches
     so that one takes precedence over another, as "SEND" has
     precedence over "STOP" here:

             chomp($answer = <>);
             if    ("SEND"  =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is send\n"  }
             elsif ("STOP"  =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is stop\n"  }
             elsif ("ABORT" =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is abort\n" }
             elsif ("LIST"  =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is list\n"  }
             elsif ("EDIT"  =~ /^\Q$answer/i) { print "Action is edit\n"  }

     A totally different approach is to create a hash of function
     references.

             my %commands = (
                     "happy" => \&joy,
                     "sad",  => \&sullen,
                     "done"  => sub { die "See ya!" },
                     "mad"   => \&angry,
             );

             print "How are you? ";
             chomp($string = <STDIN>);
             if ($commands{$string}) {
                     $commands{$string}->();
             } else {
                     print "No such command: $string\n";
             }

     Starting from Perl 5.8, a source filter module, "Switch",
     can also be used to get switch and case. Its use is now
     discouraged, because it's not fully compatible with the
     native switch of Perl 5.10, and because, as it's implemented
     as a source filter, it doesn't always work as intended when



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     complex syntax is involved.

  How can I catch accesses to undefined variables, functions, or
     methods?
     The AUTOLOAD method, discussed in "Autoloading" in perlsub
     and "AUTOLOAD: Proxy Methods" in perltoot, lets you capture
     calls to undefined functions and methods.

     When it comes to undefined variables that would trigger a
     warning under "use warnings", you can promote the warning to
     an error.

             use warnings FATAL => qw(uninitialized);

  Why can't a method included in this same file be found?
     Some possible reasons: your inheritance is getting confused,
     you've misspelled the method name, or the object is of the
     wrong type.  Check out perltoot for details about any of the
     above cases.  You may also use "print ref($object)" to find
     out the class $object was blessed into.

     Another possible reason for problems is because you've used
     the indirect object syntax (eg, "find Guru "Samy"") on a
     class name before Perl has seen that such a package exists.
     It's wisest to make sure your packages are all defined
     before you start using them, which will be taken care of if
     you use the "use" statement instead of "require".  If not,
     make sure to use arrow notation (eg., "Guru->find("Samy")")
     instead.  Object notation is explained in perlobj.

     Make sure to read about creating modules in perlmod and the
     perils of indirect objects in "Method Invocation" in
     perlobj.

  How can I find out my current or calling package?
     (contributed by brian d foy)

     To find the package you are currently in, use the special
     literal "__PACKAGE__", as documented in perldata. You can
     only use the special literals as separate tokens, so you
     can't interpolate them into strings like you can with
     variables:

             my $current_package = __PACKAGE__;
             print "I am in package $current_package\n";

     If you want to find the package calling your code, perhaps
     to give better diagnostics as "Carp" does, use the "caller"
     built-in:






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             sub foo {
                     my @args = ...;
                     my( $package, $filename, $line ) = caller;

                     print "I was called from package $package\n";
                     );

     By default, your program starts in package "main", so you
     should always be in some package unless someone uses the
     "package" built-in with no namespace. See the "package"
     entry in perlfunc for the details of empty packages.

     This is different from finding out the package an object is
     blessed into, which might not be the current package. For
     that, use "blessed" from "Scalar::Util", part of the
     Standard Library since Perl 5.8:

             use Scalar::Util qw(blessed);
             my $object_package = blessed( $object );

     Most of the time, you shouldn't care what package an object
     is blessed into, however, as long as it claims to inherit
     from that class:

             my $is_right_class = eval { $object->isa( $package ) }; # true or false

     And, with Perl 5.10 and later, you don't have to check for
     an inheritance to see if the object can handle a role. For
     that, you can use "DOES", which comes from "UNIVERSAL":

             my $class_does_it = eval { $object->DOES( $role ) }; # true or false

     You can safely replace "isa" with "DOES" (although the
     converse is not true).

  How can I comment out a large block of Perl code?
     (contributed by brian d foy)

     The quick-and-dirty way to comment out more than one line of
     Perl is to surround those lines with Pod directives. You
     have to put these directives at the beginning of the line
     and somewhere where Perl expects a new statement (so not in
     the middle of statements like the # comments). You end the
     comment with "=cut", ending the Pod section:

             =pod

             my $object = NotGonnaHappen->new();

             ignored_sub();

             $wont_be_assigned = 37;



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             =cut

     The quick-and-dirty method only works well when you don't
     plan to leave the commented code in the source. If a Pod
     parser comes along, you're multiline comment is going to
     show up in the Pod translation.  A better way hides it from
     Pod parsers as well.

     The "=begin" directive can mark a section for a particular
     purpose.  If the Pod parser doesn't want to handle it, it
     just ignores it. Label the comments with "comment". End the
     comment using "=end" with the same label. You still need the
     "=cut" to go back to Perl code from the Pod comment:

             =begin comment

             my $object = NotGonnaHappen->new();

             ignored_sub();

             $wont_be_assigned = 37;

             =end comment

             =cut

     For more information on Pod, check out perlpod and
     perlpodspec.

  How do I clear a package?
     Use this code, provided by Mark-Jason Dominus:

             sub scrub_package {
                     no strict 'refs';
                     my $pack = shift;
                     die "Shouldn't delete main package"
                             if $pack eq "" || $pack eq "main";
                     my $stash = *{$pack . '::'}{HASH};
                     my $name;
                     foreach $name (keys %$stash) {
                             my $fullname = $pack . '::' . $name;
                             # Get rid of everything with that name.
                             undef $$fullname;
                             undef @$fullname;
                             undef %$fullname;
                             undef &$fullname;
                             undef *$fullname;
             }
             }





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     Or, if you're using a recent release of Perl, you can just
     use the Symbol::delete_package() function instead.

  How can I use a variable as a variable name?
     Beginners often think they want to have a variable contain
     the name of a variable.

             $fred    = 23;
             $varname = "fred";
             ++$$varname;         # $fred now 24

     This works sometimes, but it is a very bad idea for two
     reasons.

     The first reason is that this technique only works on global
     variables.  That means that if $fred is a lexical variable
     created with my() in the above example, the code wouldn't
     work at all: you'd accidentally access the global and skip
     right over the private lexical altogether.  Global variables
     are bad because they can easily collide accidentally and in
     general make for non-scalable and confusing code.

     Symbolic references are forbidden under the "use strict"
     pragma.  They are not true references and consequently are
     not reference counted or garbage collected.

     The other reason why using a variable to hold the name of
     another variable is a bad idea is that the question often
     stems from a lack of understanding of Perl data structures,
     particularly hashes.  By using symbolic references, you are
     just using the package's symbol-table hash (like %main::)
     instead of a user-defined hash.  The solution is to use your
     own hash or a real reference instead.

             $USER_VARS{"fred"} = 23;
             $varname = "fred";
             $USER_VARS{$varname}++;  # not $$varname++

     There we're using the %USER_VARS hash instead of symbolic
     references.  Sometimes this comes up in reading strings from
     the user with variable references and wanting to expand them
     to the values of your perl program's variables.  This is
     also a bad idea because it conflates the program-addressable
     namespace and the user-addressable one.  Instead of reading
     a string and expanding it to the actual contents of your
     program's own variables:

             $str = 'this has a $fred and $barney in it';
             $str =~ s/(\$\w+)/$1/eeg;                 # need double eval

     it would be better to keep a hash around like %USER_VARS and
     have variable references actually refer to entries in that



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     hash:

             $str =~ s/\$(\w+)/$USER_VARS{$1}/g;   # no /e here at all

     That's faster, cleaner, and safer than the previous
     approach.  Of course, you don't need to use a dollar sign.
     You could use your own scheme to make it less confusing,
     like bracketed percent symbols, etc.

             $str = 'this has a %fred% and %barney% in it';
             $str =~ s/%(\w+)%/$USER_VARS{$1}/g;   # no /e here at all

     Another reason that folks sometimes think they want a
     variable to contain the name of a variable is because they
     don't know how to build proper data structures using hashes.
     For example, let's say they wanted two hashes in their
     program: %fred and %barney, and that they wanted to use
     another scalar variable to refer to those by name.

             $name = "fred";
             $$name{WIFE} = "wilma";     # set %fred

             $name = "barney";
             $$name{WIFE} = "betty"; # set %barney

     This is still a symbolic reference, and is still saddled
     with the problems enumerated above.  It would be far better
     to write:

             $folks{"fred"}{WIFE}   = "wilma";
             $folks{"barney"}{WIFE} = "betty";

     And just use a multilevel hash to start with.

     The only times that you absolutely must use symbolic
     references are when you really must refer to the symbol
     table.  This may be because it's something that can't take a
     real reference to, such as a format name.  Doing so may also
     be important for method calls, since these always go through
     the symbol table for resolution.

     In those cases, you would turn off "strict 'refs'"
     temporarily so you can play around with the symbol table.
     For example:

             @colors = qw(red blue green yellow orange purple violet);
             for my $name (@colors) {
                     no strict 'refs';  # renege for the block
                     *$name = sub { "<FONT COLOR='$name'>@_</FONT>" };
             }





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     All those functions (red(), blue(), green(), etc.) appear to
     be separate, but the real code in the closure actually was
     compiled only once.

     So, sometimes you might want to use symbolic references to
     directly manipulate the symbol table.  This doesn't matter
     for formats, handles, and subroutines, because they are
     always global--you can't use my() on them.  For scalars,
     arrays, and hashes, though--and usually for subroutines--
     you probably only want to use hard references.

  What does "bad interpreter" mean?
     (contributed by brian d foy)

     The "bad interpreter" message comes from the shell, not
     perl.  The actual message may vary depending on your
     platform, shell, and locale settings.

     If you see "bad interpreter - no such file or directory",
     the first line in your perl script (the "shebang" line) does
     not contain the right path to perl (or any other program
     capable of running scripts).  Sometimes this happens when
     you move the script from one machine to another and each
     machine has a different path to perl--/usr/bin/perl versus
     /usr/local/bin/perl for instance. It may also indicate that
     the source machine has CRLF line terminators and the
     destination machine has LF only: the shell tries to find
     /usr/bin/perl<CR>, but can't.

     If you see "bad interpreter: Permission denied", you need to
     make your script executable.

     In either case, you should still be able to run the scripts
     with perl explicitly:

             % perl script.pl

     If you get a message like "perl: command not found", perl is
     not in your PATH, which might also mean that the location of
     perl is not where you expect it so you need to adjust your
     shebang line.

AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
     Copyright (c) 1997-2010 Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington,
     and other authors as noted. All rights reserved.

     This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or
     modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

     Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples in this
     file are hereby placed into the public domain.  You are
     permitted and encouraged to use this code in your own



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     programs for fun or for profit as you see fit.  A simple
     comment in the code giving credit would be courteous but is
     not required.



ATTRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
     attributes:

     +---------------+------------------+
     |ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE  |
     +---------------+------------------+
     |Availability   | runtime/perl-512 |
     +---------------+------------------+
     |Stability      | Uncommitted      |
     +---------------+------------------+
NOTES
     This software was built from source available at
     https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland.  The original
     community source was downloaded from
     http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/perl-5.12.5.tar.bz2

     Further information about this software can be found on the
     open source community website at http://www.perl.org/.






























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