4 perlfunc - Perl builtin functions
8 The functions in this section can serve as terms in an expression.
9 They fall into two major categories: list operators and named unary
10 operators. These differ in their precedence relationship with a
11 following comma. (See the precedence table in L<perlop>.) List
12 operators take more than one argument, while unary operators can never
13 take more than one argument. Thus, a comma terminates the argument of
14 a unary operator, but merely separates the arguments of a list
15 operator. A unary operator generally provides a scalar context to its
16 argument, while a list operator may provide either scalar or list
17 contexts for its arguments. If it does both, the scalar arguments will
18 be first, and the list argument will follow. (Note that there can ever
19 be only one such list argument.) For instance, splice() has three scalar
20 arguments followed by a list, whereas gethostbyname() has four scalar
23 In the syntax descriptions that follow, list operators that expect a
24 list (and provide list context for the elements of the list) are shown
25 with LIST as an argument. Such a list may consist of any combination
26 of scalar arguments or list values; the list values will be included
27 in the list as if each individual element were interpolated at that
28 point in the list, forming a longer single-dimensional list value.
29 Commas should separate elements of the LIST.
31 Any function in the list below may be used either with or without
32 parentheses around its arguments. (The syntax descriptions omit the
33 parentheses.) If you use the parentheses, the simple (but occasionally
34 surprising) rule is this: It I<looks> like a function, therefore it I<is> a
35 function, and precedence doesn't matter. Otherwise it's a list
36 operator or unary operator, and precedence does matter. And whitespace
37 between the function and left parenthesis doesn't count--so you need to
40 print 1+2+4; # Prints 7.
41 print(1+2) + 4; # Prints 3.
42 print (1+2)+4; # Also prints 3!
43 print +(1+2)+4; # Prints 7.
44 print ((1+2)+4); # Prints 7.
46 If you run Perl with the B<-w> switch it can warn you about this. For
47 example, the third line above produces:
49 print (...) interpreted as function at - line 1.
50 Useless use of integer addition in void context at - line 1.
52 A few functions take no arguments at all, and therefore work as neither
53 unary nor list operators. These include such functions as C<time>
54 and C<endpwent>. For example, C<time+86_400> always means
57 For functions that can be used in either a scalar or list context,
58 nonabortive failure is generally indicated in a scalar context by
59 returning the undefined value, and in a list context by returning the
62 Remember the following important rule: There is B<no rule> that relates
63 the behavior of an expression in list context to its behavior in scalar
64 context, or vice versa. It might do two totally different things.
65 Each operator and function decides which sort of value it would be most
66 appropriate to return in scalar context. Some operators return the
67 length of the list that would have been returned in list context. Some
68 operators return the first value in the list. Some operators return the
69 last value in the list. Some operators return a count of successful
70 operations. In general, they do what you want, unless you want
74 A named array in scalar context is quite different from what would at
75 first glance appear to be a list in scalar context. You can't get a list
76 like C<(1,2,3)> into being in scalar context, because the compiler knows
77 the context at compile time. It would generate the scalar comma operator
78 there, not the list construction version of the comma. That means it
79 was never a list to start with.
81 In general, functions in Perl that serve as wrappers for system calls
82 of the same name (like chown(2), fork(2), closedir(2), etc.) all return
83 true when they succeed and C<undef> otherwise, as is usually mentioned
84 in the descriptions below. This is different from the C interfaces,
85 which return C<-1> on failure. Exceptions to this rule are C<wait>,
86 C<waitpid>, and C<syscall>. System calls also set the special C<$!>
87 variable on failure. Other functions do not, except accidentally.
89 =head2 Perl Functions by Category
92 Here are Perl's functions (including things that look like
93 functions, like some keywords and named operators)
94 arranged by category. Some functions appear in more
99 =item Functions for SCALARs or strings
100 X<scalar> X<string> X<character>
102 C<chomp>, C<chop>, C<chr>, C<crypt>, C<hex>, C<index>, C<lc>, C<lcfirst>,
103 C<length>, C<oct>, C<ord>, C<pack>, C<q//>, C<qq//>, C<reverse>,
104 C<rindex>, C<sprintf>, C<substr>, C<tr///>, C<uc>, C<ucfirst>, C<y///>
106 =item Regular expressions and pattern matching
107 X<regular expression> X<regex> X<regexp>
109 C<m//>, C<pos>, C<quotemeta>, C<s///>, C<split>, C<study>, C<qr//>
111 =item Numeric functions
112 X<numeric> X<number> X<trigonometric> X<trigonometry>
114 C<abs>, C<atan2>, C<cos>, C<exp>, C<hex>, C<int>, C<log>, C<oct>, C<rand>,
115 C<sin>, C<sqrt>, C<srand>
117 =item Functions for real @ARRAYs
120 C<pop>, C<push>, C<shift>, C<splice>, C<unshift>
122 =item Functions for list data
125 C<grep>, C<join>, C<map>, C<qw//>, C<reverse>, C<sort>, C<unpack>
127 =item Functions for real %HASHes
130 C<delete>, C<each>, C<exists>, C<keys>, C<values>
132 =item Input and output functions
133 X<I/O> X<input> X<output> X<dbm>
135 C<binmode>, C<close>, C<closedir>, C<dbmclose>, C<dbmopen>, C<die>, C<eof>,
136 C<fileno>, C<flock>, C<format>, C<getc>, C<print>, C<printf>, C<read>,
137 C<readdir>, C<rewinddir>, C<say>, C<seek>, C<seekdir>, C<select>, C<syscall>,
138 C<sysread>, C<sysseek>, C<syswrite>, C<tell>, C<telldir>, C<truncate>,
141 =item Functions for fixed length data or records
143 C<pack>, C<read>, C<syscall>, C<sysread>, C<syswrite>, C<unpack>, C<vec>
145 =item Functions for filehandles, files, or directories
146 X<file> X<filehandle> X<directory> X<pipe> X<link> X<symlink>
148 C<-I<X>>, C<chdir>, C<chmod>, C<chown>, C<chroot>, C<fcntl>, C<glob>,
149 C<ioctl>, C<link>, C<lstat>, C<mkdir>, C<open>, C<opendir>,
150 C<readlink>, C<rename>, C<rmdir>, C<stat>, C<symlink>, C<sysopen>,
151 C<umask>, C<unlink>, C<utime>
153 =item Keywords related to the control flow of your Perl program
156 C<caller>, C<continue>, C<die>, C<do>, C<dump>, C<eval>, C<exit>,
157 C<goto>, C<last>, C<next>, C<redo>, C<return>, C<sub>, C<wantarray>
159 =item Keywords related to switch
161 C<break>, C<continue>, C<given>, C<when>, C<default>
163 (These are only available if you enable the "switch" feature.
164 See L<feature> and L<perlsyn/"Switch statements">.)
166 =item Keywords related to scoping
168 C<caller>, C<import>, C<local>, C<my>, C<our>, C<state>, C<package>,
171 (C<state> is only available if the "state" feature is enabled. See
174 =item Miscellaneous functions
176 C<defined>, C<dump>, C<eval>, C<formline>, C<local>, C<my>, C<our>,
177 C<reset>, C<scalar>, C<state>, C<undef>, C<wantarray>
179 =item Functions for processes and process groups
180 X<process> X<pid> X<process id>
182 C<alarm>, C<exec>, C<fork>, C<getpgrp>, C<getppid>, C<getpriority>, C<kill>,
183 C<pipe>, C<qx//>, C<setpgrp>, C<setpriority>, C<sleep>, C<system>,
184 C<times>, C<wait>, C<waitpid>
186 =item Keywords related to perl modules
189 C<do>, C<import>, C<no>, C<package>, C<require>, C<use>
191 =item Keywords related to classes and object-orientation
192 X<object> X<class> X<package>
194 C<bless>, C<dbmclose>, C<dbmopen>, C<package>, C<ref>, C<tie>, C<tied>,
197 =item Low-level socket functions
200 C<accept>, C<bind>, C<connect>, C<getpeername>, C<getsockname>,
201 C<getsockopt>, C<listen>, C<recv>, C<send>, C<setsockopt>, C<shutdown>,
202 C<socket>, C<socketpair>
204 =item System V interprocess communication functions
205 X<IPC> X<System V> X<semaphore> X<shared memory> X<memory> X<message>
207 C<msgctl>, C<msgget>, C<msgrcv>, C<msgsnd>, C<semctl>, C<semget>, C<semop>,
208 C<shmctl>, C<shmget>, C<shmread>, C<shmwrite>
210 =item Fetching user and group info
211 X<user> X<group> X<password> X<uid> X<gid> X<passwd> X</etc/passwd>
213 C<endgrent>, C<endhostent>, C<endnetent>, C<endpwent>, C<getgrent>,
214 C<getgrgid>, C<getgrnam>, C<getlogin>, C<getpwent>, C<getpwnam>,
215 C<getpwuid>, C<setgrent>, C<setpwent>
217 =item Fetching network info
218 X<network> X<protocol> X<host> X<hostname> X<IP> X<address> X<service>
220 C<endprotoent>, C<endservent>, C<gethostbyaddr>, C<gethostbyname>,
221 C<gethostent>, C<getnetbyaddr>, C<getnetbyname>, C<getnetent>,
222 C<getprotobyname>, C<getprotobynumber>, C<getprotoent>,
223 C<getservbyname>, C<getservbyport>, C<getservent>, C<sethostent>,
224 C<setnetent>, C<setprotoent>, C<setservent>
226 =item Time-related functions
229 C<gmtime>, C<localtime>, C<time>, C<times>
231 =item Functions new in perl5
234 C<abs>, C<bless>, C<break>, C<chomp>, C<chr>, C<continue>, C<default>,
235 C<exists>, C<formline>, C<given>, C<glob>, C<import>, C<lc>, C<lcfirst>,
236 C<lock>, C<map>, C<my>, C<no>, C<our>, C<prototype>, C<qr//>, C<qw//>, C<qx//>,
237 C<readline>, C<readpipe>, C<ref>, C<sub>*, C<sysopen>, C<tie>, C<tied>, C<uc>,
238 C<ucfirst>, C<untie>, C<use>, C<when>
240 * - C<sub> was a keyword in perl4, but in perl5 it is an
241 operator, which can be used in expressions.
243 =item Functions obsoleted in perl5
245 C<dbmclose>, C<dbmopen>
250 X<portability> X<Unix> X<portable>
252 Perl was born in Unix and can therefore access all common Unix
253 system calls. In non-Unix environments, the functionality of some
254 Unix system calls may not be available, or details of the available
255 functionality may differ slightly. The Perl functions affected
258 C<-X>, C<binmode>, C<chmod>, C<chown>, C<chroot>, C<crypt>,
259 C<dbmclose>, C<dbmopen>, C<dump>, C<endgrent>, C<endhostent>,
260 C<endnetent>, C<endprotoent>, C<endpwent>, C<endservent>, C<exec>,
261 C<fcntl>, C<flock>, C<fork>, C<getgrent>, C<getgrgid>, C<gethostbyname>,
262 C<gethostent>, C<getlogin>, C<getnetbyaddr>, C<getnetbyname>, C<getnetent>,
263 C<getppid>, C<getpgrp>, C<getpriority>, C<getprotobynumber>,
264 C<getprotoent>, C<getpwent>, C<getpwnam>, C<getpwuid>,
265 C<getservbyport>, C<getservent>, C<getsockopt>, C<glob>, C<ioctl>,
266 C<kill>, C<link>, C<lstat>, C<msgctl>, C<msgget>, C<msgrcv>,
267 C<msgsnd>, C<open>, C<pipe>, C<readlink>, C<rename>, C<select>, C<semctl>,
268 C<semget>, C<semop>, C<setgrent>, C<sethostent>, C<setnetent>,
269 C<setpgrp>, C<setpriority>, C<setprotoent>, C<setpwent>,
270 C<setservent>, C<setsockopt>, C<shmctl>, C<shmget>, C<shmread>,
271 C<shmwrite>, C<socket>, C<socketpair>,
272 C<stat>, C<symlink>, C<syscall>, C<sysopen>, C<system>,
273 C<times>, C<truncate>, C<umask>, C<unlink>,
274 C<utime>, C<wait>, C<waitpid>
276 For more information about the portability of these functions, see
277 L<perlport> and other available platform-specific documentation.
279 =head2 Alphabetical Listing of Perl Functions
284 X<-r>X<-w>X<-x>X<-o>X<-R>X<-W>X<-X>X<-O>X<-e>X<-z>X<-s>X<-f>X<-d>X<-l>X<-p>
285 X<-S>X<-b>X<-c>X<-t>X<-u>X<-g>X<-k>X<-T>X<-B>X<-M>X<-A>X<-C>
293 A file test, where X is one of the letters listed below. This unary
294 operator takes one argument, either a filename, a filehandle, or a dirhandle,
295 and tests the associated file to see if something is true about it. If the
296 argument is omitted, tests C<$_>, except for C<-t>, which tests STDIN.
297 Unless otherwise documented, it returns C<1> for true and C<''> for false, or
298 the undefined value if the file doesn't exist. Despite the funny
299 names, precedence is the same as any other named unary operator. The
300 operator may be any of:
302 -r File is readable by effective uid/gid.
303 -w File is writable by effective uid/gid.
304 -x File is executable by effective uid/gid.
305 -o File is owned by effective uid.
307 -R File is readable by real uid/gid.
308 -W File is writable by real uid/gid.
309 -X File is executable by real uid/gid.
310 -O File is owned by real uid.
313 -z File has zero size (is empty).
314 -s File has nonzero size (returns size in bytes).
316 -f File is a plain file.
317 -d File is a directory.
318 -l File is a symbolic link.
319 -p File is a named pipe (FIFO), or Filehandle is a pipe.
321 -b File is a block special file.
322 -c File is a character special file.
323 -t Filehandle is opened to a tty.
325 -u File has setuid bit set.
326 -g File has setgid bit set.
327 -k File has sticky bit set.
329 -T File is an ASCII text file (heuristic guess).
330 -B File is a "binary" file (opposite of -T).
332 -M Script start time minus file modification time, in days.
333 -A Same for access time.
334 -C Same for inode change time (Unix, may differ for other platforms)
340 next unless -f $_; # ignore specials
344 The interpretation of the file permission operators C<-r>, C<-R>,
345 C<-w>, C<-W>, C<-x>, and C<-X> is by default based solely on the mode
346 of the file and the uids and gids of the user. There may be other
347 reasons you can't actually read, write, or execute the file: for
348 example network filesystem access controls, ACLs (access control lists),
349 read-only filesystems, and unrecognized executable formats. Note
350 that the use of these six specific operators to verify if some operation
351 is possible is usually a mistake, because it may be open to race
354 Also note that, for the superuser on the local filesystems, the C<-r>,
355 C<-R>, C<-w>, and C<-W> tests always return 1, and C<-x> and C<-X> return 1
356 if any execute bit is set in the mode. Scripts run by the superuser
357 may thus need to do a stat() to determine the actual mode of the file,
358 or temporarily set their effective uid to something else.
360 If you are using ACLs, there is a pragma called C<filetest> that may
361 produce more accurate results than the bare stat() mode bits.
362 When under the C<use filetest 'access'> the above-mentioned filetests
363 will test whether the permission can (not) be granted using the
364 access() family of system calls. Also note that the C<-x> and C<-X> may
365 under this pragma return true even if there are no execute permission
366 bits set (nor any extra execute permission ACLs). This strangeness is
367 due to the underlying system calls' definitions. Note also that, due to
368 the implementation of C<use filetest 'access'>, the C<_> special
369 filehandle won't cache the results of the file tests when this pragma is
370 in effect. Read the documentation for the C<filetest> pragma for more
373 Note that C<-s/a/b/> does not do a negated substitution. Saying
374 C<-exp($foo)> still works as expected, however--only single letters
375 following a minus are interpreted as file tests.
377 The C<-T> and C<-B> switches work as follows. The first block or so of the
378 file is examined for odd characters such as strange control codes or
379 characters with the high bit set. If too many strange characters (>30%)
380 are found, it's a C<-B> file; otherwise it's a C<-T> file. Also, any file
381 containing null in the first block is considered a binary file. If C<-T>
382 or C<-B> is used on a filehandle, the current IO buffer is examined
383 rather than the first block. Both C<-T> and C<-B> return true on a null
384 file, or a file at EOF when testing a filehandle. Because you have to
385 read a file to do the C<-T> test, on most occasions you want to use a C<-f>
386 against the file first, as in C<next unless -f $file && -T $file>.
388 If any of the file tests (or either the C<stat> or C<lstat> operators) are given
389 the special filehandle consisting of a solitary underline, then the stat
390 structure of the previous file test (or stat operator) is used, saving
391 a system call. (This doesn't work with C<-t>, and you need to remember
392 that lstat() and C<-l> will leave values in the stat structure for the
393 symbolic link, not the real file.) (Also, if the stat buffer was filled by
394 an C<lstat> call, C<-T> and C<-B> will reset it with the results of C<stat _>).
397 print "Can do.\n" if -r $a || -w _ || -x _;
400 print "Readable\n" if -r _;
401 print "Writable\n" if -w _;
402 print "Executable\n" if -x _;
403 print "Setuid\n" if -u _;
404 print "Setgid\n" if -g _;
405 print "Sticky\n" if -k _;
406 print "Text\n" if -T _;
407 print "Binary\n" if -B _;
409 As of Perl 5.9.1, as a form of purely syntactic sugar, you can stack file
410 test operators, in a way that C<-f -w -x $file> is equivalent to
411 C<-x $file && -w _ && -f _>. (This is only syntax fancy: if you use
412 the return value of C<-f $file> as an argument to another filetest
413 operator, no special magic will happen.)
420 Returns the absolute value of its argument.
421 If VALUE is omitted, uses C<$_>.
423 =item accept NEWSOCKET,GENERICSOCKET
426 Accepts an incoming socket connect, just as the accept(2) system call
427 does. Returns the packed address if it succeeded, false otherwise.
428 See the example in L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server Communication">.
430 On systems that support a close-on-exec flag on files, the flag will
431 be set for the newly opened file descriptor, as determined by the
432 value of $^F. See L<perlvar/$^F>.
441 Arranges to have a SIGALRM delivered to this process after the
442 specified number of wallclock seconds has elapsed. If SECONDS is not
443 specified, the value stored in C<$_> is used. (On some machines,
444 unfortunately, the elapsed time may be up to one second less or more
445 than you specified because of how seconds are counted, and process
446 scheduling may delay the delivery of the signal even further.)
448 Only one timer may be counting at once. Each call disables the
449 previous timer, and an argument of C<0> may be supplied to cancel the
450 previous timer without starting a new one. The returned value is the
451 amount of time remaining on the previous timer.
453 For delays of finer granularity than one second, the Time::HiRes module
454 (from CPAN, and starting from Perl 5.8 part of the standard
455 distribution) provides ualarm(). You may also use Perl's four-argument
456 version of select() leaving the first three arguments undefined, or you
457 might be able to use the C<syscall> interface to access setitimer(2) if
458 your system supports it. See L<perlfaq8> for details.
460 It is usually a mistake to intermix C<alarm> and C<sleep> calls.
461 (C<sleep> may be internally implemented in your system with C<alarm>)
463 If you want to use C<alarm> to time out a system call you need to use an
464 C<eval>/C<die> pair. You can't rely on the alarm causing the system call to
465 fail with C<$!> set to C<EINTR> because Perl sets up signal handlers to
466 restart system calls on some systems. Using C<eval>/C<die> always works,
467 modulo the caveats given in L<perlipc/"Signals">.
470 local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "alarm\n" }; # NB: \n required
472 $nread = sysread SOCKET, $buffer, $size;
476 die unless $@ eq "alarm\n"; # propagate unexpected errors
483 For more information see L<perlipc>.
486 X<atan2> X<arctangent> X<tan> X<tangent>
488 Returns the arctangent of Y/X in the range -PI to PI.
490 For the tangent operation, you may use the C<Math::Trig::tan>
491 function, or use the familiar relation:
493 sub tan { sin($_[0]) / cos($_[0]) }
495 Note that atan2(0, 0) is not well-defined.
497 =item bind SOCKET,NAME
500 Binds a network address to a socket, just as the bind system call
501 does. Returns true if it succeeded, false otherwise. NAME should be a
502 packed address of the appropriate type for the socket. See the examples in
503 L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server Communication">.
505 =item binmode FILEHANDLE, LAYER
506 X<binmode> X<binary> X<text> X<DOS> X<Windows>
508 =item binmode FILEHANDLE
510 Arranges for FILEHANDLE to be read or written in "binary" or "text"
511 mode on systems where the run-time libraries distinguish between
512 binary and text files. If FILEHANDLE is an expression, the value is
513 taken as the name of the filehandle. Returns true on success,
514 otherwise it returns C<undef> and sets C<$!> (errno).
516 On some systems (in general, DOS and Windows-based systems) binmode()
517 is necessary when you're not working with a text file. For the sake
518 of portability it is a good idea to always use it when appropriate,
519 and to never use it when it isn't appropriate. Also, people can
520 set their I/O to be by default UTF-8 encoded Unicode, not bytes.
522 In other words: regardless of platform, use binmode() on binary data,
523 like for example images.
525 If LAYER is present it is a single string, but may contain multiple
526 directives. The directives alter the behaviour of the file handle.
527 When LAYER is present using binmode on text file makes sense.
529 If LAYER is omitted or specified as C<:raw> the filehandle is made
530 suitable for passing binary data. This includes turning off possible CRLF
531 translation and marking it as bytes (as opposed to Unicode characters).
532 Note that, despite what may be implied in I<"Programming Perl"> (the
533 Camel) or elsewhere, C<:raw> is I<not> simply the inverse of C<:crlf>
534 -- other layers which would affect the binary nature of the stream are
535 I<also> disabled. See L<PerlIO>, L<perlrun> and the discussion about the
536 PERLIO environment variable.
538 The C<:bytes>, C<:crlf>, and C<:utf8>, and any other directives of the
539 form C<:...>, are called I/O I<layers>. The C<open> pragma can be used to
540 establish default I/O layers. See L<open>.
542 I<The LAYER parameter of the binmode() function is described as "DISCIPLINE"
543 in "Programming Perl, 3rd Edition". However, since the publishing of this
544 book, by many known as "Camel III", the consensus of the naming of this
545 functionality has moved from "discipline" to "layer". All documentation
546 of this version of Perl therefore refers to "layers" rather than to
547 "disciplines". Now back to the regularly scheduled documentation...>
549 To mark FILEHANDLE as UTF-8, use C<:utf8> or C<:encoding(utf8)>.
550 C<:utf8> just marks the data as UTF-8 without further checking,
551 while C<:encoding(utf8)> checks the data for actually being valid
552 UTF-8. More details can be found in L<PerlIO::encoding>.
554 In general, binmode() should be called after open() but before any I/O
555 is done on the filehandle. Calling binmode() will normally flush any
556 pending buffered output data (and perhaps pending input data) on the
557 handle. An exception to this is the C<:encoding> layer that
558 changes the default character encoding of the handle, see L<open>.
559 The C<:encoding> layer sometimes needs to be called in
560 mid-stream, and it doesn't flush the stream. The C<:encoding>
561 also implicitly pushes on top of itself the C<:utf8> layer because
562 internally Perl will operate on UTF-8 encoded Unicode characters.
564 The operating system, device drivers, C libraries, and Perl run-time
565 system all work together to let the programmer treat a single
566 character (C<\n>) as the line terminator, irrespective of the external
567 representation. On many operating systems, the native text file
568 representation matches the internal representation, but on some
569 platforms the external representation of C<\n> is made up of more than
572 Mac OS, all variants of Unix, and Stream_LF files on VMS use a single
573 character to end each line in the external representation of text (even
574 though that single character is CARRIAGE RETURN on Mac OS and LINE FEED
575 on Unix and most VMS files). In other systems like OS/2, DOS and the
576 various flavors of MS-Windows your program sees a C<\n> as a simple C<\cJ>,
577 but what's stored in text files are the two characters C<\cM\cJ>. That
578 means that, if you don't use binmode() on these systems, C<\cM\cJ>
579 sequences on disk will be converted to C<\n> on input, and any C<\n> in
580 your program will be converted back to C<\cM\cJ> on output. This is what
581 you want for text files, but it can be disastrous for binary files.
583 Another consequence of using binmode() (on some systems) is that
584 special end-of-file markers will be seen as part of the data stream.
585 For systems from the Microsoft family this means that if your binary
586 data contains C<\cZ>, the I/O subsystem will regard it as the end of
587 the file, unless you use binmode().
589 binmode() is not only important for readline() and print() operations,
590 but also when using read(), seek(), sysread(), syswrite() and tell()
591 (see L<perlport> for more details). See the C<$/> and C<$\> variables
592 in L<perlvar> for how to manually set your input and output
593 line-termination sequences.
595 =item bless REF,CLASSNAME
600 This function tells the thingy referenced by REF that it is now an object
601 in the CLASSNAME package. If CLASSNAME is omitted, the current package
602 is used. Because a C<bless> is often the last thing in a constructor,
603 it returns the reference for convenience. Always use the two-argument
604 version if a derived class might inherit the function doing the blessing.
605 See L<perltoot> and L<perlobj> for more about the blessing (and blessings)
608 Consider always blessing objects in CLASSNAMEs that are mixed case.
609 Namespaces with all lowercase names are considered reserved for
610 Perl pragmata. Builtin types have all uppercase names. To prevent
611 confusion, you may wish to avoid such package names as well. Make sure
612 that CLASSNAME is a true value.
614 See L<perlmod/"Perl Modules">.
618 Break out of a C<given()> block.
620 This keyword is enabled by the "switch" feature: see L<feature>
621 for more information.
624 X<caller> X<call stack> X<stack> X<stack trace>
628 Returns the context of the current subroutine call. In scalar context,
629 returns the caller's package name if there is a caller, that is, if
630 we're in a subroutine or C<eval> or C<require>, and the undefined value
631 otherwise. In list context, returns
634 ($package, $filename, $line) = caller;
636 With EXPR, it returns some extra information that the debugger uses to
637 print a stack trace. The value of EXPR indicates how many call frames
638 to go back before the current one.
641 ($package, $filename, $line, $subroutine, $hasargs,
644 $wantarray, $evaltext, $is_require, $hints, $bitmask, $hinthash)
647 Here $subroutine may be C<(eval)> if the frame is not a subroutine
648 call, but an C<eval>. In such a case additional elements $evaltext and
649 C<$is_require> are set: C<$is_require> is true if the frame is created by a
650 C<require> or C<use> statement, $evaltext contains the text of the
651 C<eval EXPR> statement. In particular, for an C<eval BLOCK> statement,
652 $subroutine is C<(eval)>, but $evaltext is undefined. (Note also that
653 each C<use> statement creates a C<require> frame inside an C<eval EXPR>
654 frame.) $subroutine may also be C<(unknown)> if this particular
655 subroutine happens to have been deleted from the symbol table.
656 C<$hasargs> is true if a new instance of C<@_> was set up for the frame.
657 C<$hints> and C<$bitmask> contain pragmatic hints that the caller was
658 compiled with. The C<$hints> and C<$bitmask> values are subject to change
659 between versions of Perl, and are not meant for external use.
661 C<$hinthash> is a reference to a hash containing the value of C<%^H> when the
662 caller was compiled, or C<undef> if C<%^H> was empty. Do not modify the values
663 of this hash, as they are the actual values stored in the optree.
665 Furthermore, when called from within the DB package, caller returns more
666 detailed information: it sets the list variable C<@DB::args> to be the
667 arguments with which the subroutine was invoked.
669 Be aware that the optimizer might have optimized call frames away before
670 C<caller> had a chance to get the information. That means that C<caller(N)>
671 might not return information about the call frame you expect it do, for
672 C<< N > 1 >>. In particular, C<@DB::args> might have information from the
673 previous time C<caller> was called.
680 =item chdir FILEHANDLE
682 =item chdir DIRHANDLE
686 Changes the working directory to EXPR, if possible. If EXPR is omitted,
687 changes to the directory specified by C<$ENV{HOME}>, if set; if not,
688 changes to the directory specified by C<$ENV{LOGDIR}>. (Under VMS, the
689 variable C<$ENV{SYS$LOGIN}> is also checked, and used if it is set.) If
690 neither is set, C<chdir> does nothing. It returns true upon success,
691 false otherwise. See the example under C<die>.
693 On systems that support fchdir, you might pass a file handle or
694 directory handle as argument. On systems that don't support fchdir,
695 passing handles produces a fatal error at run time.
698 X<chmod> X<permission> X<mode>
700 Changes the permissions of a list of files. The first element of the
701 list must be the numerical mode, which should probably be an octal
702 number, and which definitely should I<not> be a string of octal digits:
703 C<0644> is okay, C<'0644'> is not. Returns the number of files
704 successfully changed. See also L</oct>, if all you have is a string.
706 $cnt = chmod 0755, 'foo', 'bar';
707 chmod 0755, @executables;
708 $mode = '0644'; chmod $mode, 'foo'; # !!! sets mode to
710 $mode = '0644'; chmod oct($mode), 'foo'; # this is better
711 $mode = 0644; chmod $mode, 'foo'; # this is best
713 On systems that support fchmod, you might pass file handles among the
714 files. On systems that don't support fchmod, passing file handles
715 produces a fatal error at run time. The file handles must be passed
716 as globs or references to be recognized. Barewords are considered
719 open(my $fh, "<", "foo");
720 my $perm = (stat $fh)[2] & 07777;
721 chmod($perm | 0600, $fh);
723 You can also import the symbolic C<S_I*> constants from the Fcntl
728 chmod S_IRWXU|S_IRGRP|S_IXGRP|S_IROTH|S_IXOTH, @executables;
729 # This is identical to the chmod 0755 of the above example.
732 X<chomp> X<INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR> X<$/> X<newline> X<eol>
738 This safer version of L</chop> removes any trailing string
739 that corresponds to the current value of C<$/> (also known as
740 $INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR in the C<English> module). It returns the total
741 number of characters removed from all its arguments. It's often used to
742 remove the newline from the end of an input record when you're worried
743 that the final record may be missing its newline. When in paragraph
744 mode (C<$/ = "">), it removes all trailing newlines from the string.
745 When in slurp mode (C<$/ = undef>) or fixed-length record mode (C<$/> is
746 a reference to an integer or the like, see L<perlvar>) chomp() won't
748 If VARIABLE is omitted, it chomps C<$_>. Example:
751 chomp; # avoid \n on last field
756 If VARIABLE is a hash, it chomps the hash's values, but not its keys.
758 You can actually chomp anything that's an lvalue, including an assignment:
761 chomp($answer = <STDIN>);
763 If you chomp a list, each element is chomped, and the total number of
764 characters removed is returned.
766 Note that parentheses are necessary when you're chomping anything
767 that is not a simple variable. This is because C<chomp $cwd = `pwd`;>
768 is interpreted as C<(chomp $cwd) = `pwd`;>, rather than as
769 C<chomp( $cwd = `pwd` )> which you might expect. Similarly,
770 C<chomp $a, $b> is interpreted as C<chomp($a), $b> rather than
780 Chops off the last character of a string and returns the character
781 chopped. It is much more efficient than C<s/.$//s> because it neither
782 scans nor copies the string. If VARIABLE is omitted, chops C<$_>.
783 If VARIABLE is a hash, it chops the hash's values, but not its keys.
785 You can actually chop anything that's an lvalue, including an assignment.
787 If you chop a list, each element is chopped. Only the value of the
788 last C<chop> is returned.
790 Note that C<chop> returns the last character. To return all but the last
791 character, use C<substr($string, 0, -1)>.
796 X<chown> X<owner> X<user> X<group>
798 Changes the owner (and group) of a list of files. The first two
799 elements of the list must be the I<numeric> uid and gid, in that
800 order. A value of -1 in either position is interpreted by most
801 systems to leave that value unchanged. Returns the number of files
802 successfully changed.
804 $cnt = chown $uid, $gid, 'foo', 'bar';
805 chown $uid, $gid, @filenames;
807 On systems that support fchown, you might pass file handles among the
808 files. On systems that don't support fchown, passing file handles
809 produces a fatal error at run time. The file handles must be passed
810 as globs or references to be recognized. Barewords are considered
813 Here's an example that looks up nonnumeric uids in the passwd file:
816 chomp($user = <STDIN>);
818 chomp($pattern = <STDIN>);
820 ($login,$pass,$uid,$gid) = getpwnam($user)
821 or die "$user not in passwd file";
823 @ary = glob($pattern); # expand filenames
824 chown $uid, $gid, @ary;
826 On most systems, you are not allowed to change the ownership of the
827 file unless you're the superuser, although you should be able to change
828 the group to any of your secondary groups. On insecure systems, these
829 restrictions may be relaxed, but this is not a portable assumption.
830 On POSIX systems, you can detect this condition this way:
832 use POSIX qw(sysconf _PC_CHOWN_RESTRICTED);
833 $can_chown_giveaway = not sysconf(_PC_CHOWN_RESTRICTED);
836 X<chr> X<character> X<ASCII> X<Unicode>
840 Returns the character represented by that NUMBER in the character set.
841 For example, C<chr(65)> is C<"A"> in either ASCII or Unicode, and
842 chr(0x263a) is a Unicode smiley face.
844 Negative values give the Unicode replacement character (chr(0xfffd)),
845 except under the L<bytes> pragma, where low eight bits of the value
846 (truncated to an integer) are used.
848 If NUMBER is omitted, uses C<$_>.
850 For the reverse, use L</ord>.
852 Note that characters from 128 to 255 (inclusive) are by default
853 internally not encoded as UTF-8 for backward compatibility reasons.
855 See L<perlunicode> for more about Unicode.
857 =item chroot FILENAME
862 This function works like the system call by the same name: it makes the
863 named directory the new root directory for all further pathnames that
864 begin with a C</> by your process and all its children. (It doesn't
865 change your current working directory, which is unaffected.) For security
866 reasons, this call is restricted to the superuser. If FILENAME is
867 omitted, does a C<chroot> to C<$_>.
869 =item close FILEHANDLE
874 Closes the file or pipe associated with the file handle, flushes the IO
875 buffers, and closes the system file descriptor. Returns true if those
876 operations have succeeded and if no error was reported by any PerlIO
877 layer. Closes the currently selected filehandle if the argument is
880 You don't have to close FILEHANDLE if you are immediately going to do
881 another C<open> on it, because C<open> will close it for you. (See
882 C<open>.) However, an explicit C<close> on an input file resets the line
883 counter (C<$.>), while the implicit close done by C<open> does not.
885 If the file handle came from a piped open, C<close> will additionally
886 return false if one of the other system calls involved fails, or if the
887 program exits with non-zero status. (If the only problem was that the
888 program exited non-zero, C<$!> will be set to C<0>.) Closing a pipe
889 also waits for the process executing on the pipe to complete, in case you
890 want to look at the output of the pipe afterwards, and
891 implicitly puts the exit status value of that command into C<$?> and
892 C<${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}>.
894 Prematurely closing the read end of a pipe (i.e. before the process
895 writing to it at the other end has closed it) will result in a
896 SIGPIPE being delivered to the writer. If the other end can't
897 handle that, be sure to read all the data before closing the pipe.
901 open(OUTPUT, '|sort >foo') # pipe to sort
902 or die "Can't start sort: $!";
903 #... # print stuff to output
904 close OUTPUT # wait for sort to finish
905 or warn $! ? "Error closing sort pipe: $!"
906 : "Exit status $? from sort";
907 open(INPUT, 'foo') # get sort's results
908 or die "Can't open 'foo' for input: $!";
910 FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value can be used as an indirect
911 filehandle, usually the real filehandle name.
913 =item closedir DIRHANDLE
916 Closes a directory opened by C<opendir> and returns the success of that
919 =item connect SOCKET,NAME
922 Attempts to connect to a remote socket, just as the connect system call
923 does. Returns true if it succeeded, false otherwise. NAME should be a
924 packed address of the appropriate type for the socket. See the examples in
925 L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server Communication">.
932 C<continue> is actually a flow control statement rather than a function. If
933 there is a C<continue> BLOCK attached to a BLOCK (typically in a C<while> or
934 C<foreach>), it is always executed just before the conditional is about to
935 be evaluated again, just like the third part of a C<for> loop in C. Thus
936 it can be used to increment a loop variable, even when the loop has been
937 continued via the C<next> statement (which is similar to the C C<continue>
940 C<last>, C<next>, or C<redo> may appear within a C<continue>
941 block. C<last> and C<redo> will behave as if they had been executed within
942 the main block. So will C<next>, but since it will execute a C<continue>
943 block, it may be more entertaining.
946 ### redo always comes here
949 ### next always comes here
951 # then back the top to re-check EXPR
953 ### last always comes here
955 Omitting the C<continue> section is semantically equivalent to using an
956 empty one, logically enough. In that case, C<next> goes directly back
957 to check the condition at the top of the loop.
959 If the "switch" feature is enabled, C<continue> is also a
960 function that will break out of the current C<when> or C<default>
961 block, and fall through to the next case. See L<feature> and
962 L<perlsyn/"Switch statements"> for more information.
966 X<cos> X<cosine> X<acos> X<arccosine>
970 Returns the cosine of EXPR (expressed in radians). If EXPR is omitted,
971 takes cosine of C<$_>.
973 For the inverse cosine operation, you may use the C<Math::Trig::acos()>
974 function, or use this relation:
976 sub acos { atan2( sqrt(1 - $_[0] * $_[0]), $_[0] ) }
978 =item crypt PLAINTEXT,SALT
979 X<crypt> X<digest> X<hash> X<salt> X<plaintext> X<password>
980 X<decrypt> X<cryptography> X<passwd> X<encrypt>
982 Creates a digest string exactly like the crypt(3) function in the C
983 library (assuming that you actually have a version there that has not
984 been extirpated as a potential munitions).
986 crypt() is a one-way hash function. The PLAINTEXT and SALT is turned
987 into a short string, called a digest, which is returned. The same
988 PLAINTEXT and SALT will always return the same string, but there is no
989 (known) way to get the original PLAINTEXT from the hash. Small
990 changes in the PLAINTEXT or SALT will result in large changes in the
993 There is no decrypt function. This function isn't all that useful for
994 cryptography (for that, look for F<Crypt> modules on your nearby CPAN
995 mirror) and the name "crypt" is a bit of a misnomer. Instead it is
996 primarily used to check if two pieces of text are the same without
997 having to transmit or store the text itself. An example is checking
998 if a correct password is given. The digest of the password is stored,
999 not the password itself. The user types in a password that is
1000 crypt()'d with the same salt as the stored digest. If the two digests
1001 match the password is correct.
1003 When verifying an existing digest string you should use the digest as
1004 the salt (like C<crypt($plain, $digest) eq $digest>). The SALT used
1005 to create the digest is visible as part of the digest. This ensures
1006 crypt() will hash the new string with the same salt as the digest.
1007 This allows your code to work with the standard L<crypt|/crypt> and
1008 with more exotic implementations. In other words, do not assume
1009 anything about the returned string itself, or how many bytes in the
1012 Traditionally the result is a string of 13 bytes: two first bytes of
1013 the salt, followed by 11 bytes from the set C<[./0-9A-Za-z]>, and only
1014 the first eight bytes of the digest string mattered, but alternative
1015 hashing schemes (like MD5), higher level security schemes (like C2),
1016 and implementations on non-UNIX platforms may produce different
1019 When choosing a new salt create a random two character string whose
1020 characters come from the set C<[./0-9A-Za-z]> (like C<join '', ('.',
1021 '/', 0..9, 'A'..'Z', 'a'..'z')[rand 64, rand 64]>). This set of
1022 characters is just a recommendation; the characters allowed in
1023 the salt depend solely on your system's crypt library, and Perl can't
1024 restrict what salts C<crypt()> accepts.
1026 Here's an example that makes sure that whoever runs this program knows
1029 $pwd = (getpwuid($<))[1];
1031 system "stty -echo";
1033 chomp($word = <STDIN>);
1037 if (crypt($word, $pwd) ne $pwd) {
1043 Of course, typing in your own password to whoever asks you
1046 The L<crypt|/crypt> function is unsuitable for hashing large quantities
1047 of data, not least of all because you can't get the information
1048 back. Look at the L<Digest> module for more robust algorithms.
1050 If using crypt() on a Unicode string (which I<potentially> has
1051 characters with codepoints above 255), Perl tries to make sense
1052 of the situation by trying to downgrade (a copy of the string)
1053 the string back to an eight-bit byte string before calling crypt()
1054 (on that copy). If that works, good. If not, crypt() dies with
1055 C<Wide character in crypt>.
1060 [This function has been largely superseded by the C<untie> function.]
1062 Breaks the binding between a DBM file and a hash.
1064 =item dbmopen HASH,DBNAME,MASK
1065 X<dbmopen> X<dbm> X<ndbm> X<sdbm> X<gdbm>
1067 [This function has been largely superseded by the C<tie> function.]
1069 This binds a dbm(3), ndbm(3), sdbm(3), gdbm(3), or Berkeley DB file to a
1070 hash. HASH is the name of the hash. (Unlike normal C<open>, the first
1071 argument is I<not> a filehandle, even though it looks like one). DBNAME
1072 is the name of the database (without the F<.dir> or F<.pag> extension if
1073 any). If the database does not exist, it is created with protection
1074 specified by MASK (as modified by the C<umask>). If your system supports
1075 only the older DBM functions, you may perform only one C<dbmopen> in your
1076 program. In older versions of Perl, if your system had neither DBM nor
1077 ndbm, calling C<dbmopen> produced a fatal error; it now falls back to
1080 If you don't have write access to the DBM file, you can only read hash
1081 variables, not set them. If you want to test whether you can write,
1082 either use file tests or try setting a dummy hash entry inside an C<eval>,
1083 which will trap the error.
1085 Note that functions such as C<keys> and C<values> may return huge lists
1086 when used on large DBM files. You may prefer to use the C<each>
1087 function to iterate over large DBM files. Example:
1089 # print out history file offsets
1090 dbmopen(%HIST,'/usr/lib/news/history',0666);
1091 while (($key,$val) = each %HIST) {
1092 print $key, ' = ', unpack('L',$val), "\n";
1096 See also L<AnyDBM_File> for a more general description of the pros and
1097 cons of the various dbm approaches, as well as L<DB_File> for a particularly
1098 rich implementation.
1100 You can control which DBM library you use by loading that library
1101 before you call dbmopen():
1104 dbmopen(%NS_Hist, "$ENV{HOME}/.netscape/history.db")
1105 or die "Can't open netscape history file: $!";
1108 X<defined> X<undef> X<undefined>
1112 Returns a Boolean value telling whether EXPR has a value other than
1113 the undefined value C<undef>. If EXPR is not present, C<$_> will be
1116 Many operations return C<undef> to indicate failure, end of file,
1117 system error, uninitialized variable, and other exceptional
1118 conditions. This function allows you to distinguish C<undef> from
1119 other values. (A simple Boolean test will not distinguish among
1120 C<undef>, zero, the empty string, and C<"0">, which are all equally
1121 false.) Note that since C<undef> is a valid scalar, its presence
1122 doesn't I<necessarily> indicate an exceptional condition: C<pop>
1123 returns C<undef> when its argument is an empty array, I<or> when the
1124 element to return happens to be C<undef>.
1126 You may also use C<defined(&func)> to check whether subroutine C<&func>
1127 has ever been defined. The return value is unaffected by any forward
1128 declarations of C<&func>. Note that a subroutine which is not defined
1129 may still be callable: its package may have an C<AUTOLOAD> method that
1130 makes it spring into existence the first time that it is called -- see
1133 Use of C<defined> on aggregates (hashes and arrays) is deprecated. It
1134 used to report whether memory for that aggregate has ever been
1135 allocated. This behavior may disappear in future versions of Perl.
1136 You should instead use a simple test for size:
1138 if (@an_array) { print "has array elements\n" }
1139 if (%a_hash) { print "has hash members\n" }
1141 When used on a hash element, it tells you whether the value is defined,
1142 not whether the key exists in the hash. Use L</exists> for the latter
1147 print if defined $switch{'D'};
1148 print "$val\n" while defined($val = pop(@ary));
1149 die "Can't readlink $sym: $!"
1150 unless defined($value = readlink $sym);
1151 sub foo { defined &$bar ? &$bar(@_) : die "No bar"; }
1152 $debugging = 0 unless defined $debugging;
1154 Note: Many folks tend to overuse C<defined>, and then are surprised to
1155 discover that the number C<0> and C<""> (the zero-length string) are, in fact,
1156 defined values. For example, if you say
1160 The pattern match succeeds, and C<$1> is defined, despite the fact that it
1161 matched "nothing". It didn't really fail to match anything. Rather, it
1162 matched something that happened to be zero characters long. This is all
1163 very above-board and honest. When a function returns an undefined value,
1164 it's an admission that it couldn't give you an honest answer. So you
1165 should use C<defined> only when you're questioning the integrity of what
1166 you're trying to do. At other times, a simple comparison to C<0> or C<""> is
1169 See also L</undef>, L</exists>, L</ref>.
1174 Given an expression that specifies a hash element, array element, hash slice,
1175 or array slice, deletes the specified element(s) from the hash or array.
1176 In the case of an array, if the array elements happen to be at the end,
1177 the size of the array will shrink to the highest element that tests
1178 true for exists() (or 0 if no such element exists).
1180 Returns a list with the same number of elements as the number of elements
1181 for which deletion was attempted. Each element of that list consists of
1182 either the value of the element deleted, or the undefined value. In scalar
1183 context, this means that you get the value of the last element deleted (or
1184 the undefined value if that element did not exist).
1186 %hash = (foo => 11, bar => 22, baz => 33);
1187 $scalar = delete $hash{foo}; # $scalar is 11
1188 $scalar = delete @hash{qw(foo bar)}; # $scalar is 22
1189 @array = delete @hash{qw(foo bar baz)}; # @array is (undef,undef,33)
1191 Deleting from C<%ENV> modifies the environment. Deleting from
1192 a hash tied to a DBM file deletes the entry from the DBM file. Deleting
1193 from a C<tie>d hash or array may not necessarily return anything.
1195 Deleting an array element effectively returns that position of the array
1196 to its initial, uninitialized state. Subsequently testing for the same
1197 element with exists() will return false. Also, deleting array elements
1198 in the middle of an array will not shift the index of the elements
1199 after them down. Use splice() for that. See L</exists>.
1201 The following (inefficiently) deletes all the values of %HASH and @ARRAY:
1203 foreach $key (keys %HASH) {
1207 foreach $index (0 .. $#ARRAY) {
1208 delete $ARRAY[$index];
1213 delete @HASH{keys %HASH};
1215 delete @ARRAY[0 .. $#ARRAY];
1217 But both of these are slower than just assigning the empty list
1218 or undefining %HASH or @ARRAY:
1220 %HASH = (); # completely empty %HASH
1221 undef %HASH; # forget %HASH ever existed
1223 @ARRAY = (); # completely empty @ARRAY
1224 undef @ARRAY; # forget @ARRAY ever existed
1226 Note that the EXPR can be arbitrarily complicated as long as the final
1227 operation is a hash element, array element, hash slice, or array slice
1230 delete $ref->[$x][$y]{$key};
1231 delete @{$ref->[$x][$y]}{$key1, $key2, @morekeys};
1233 delete $ref->[$x][$y][$index];
1234 delete @{$ref->[$x][$y]}[$index1, $index2, @moreindices];
1237 X<die> X<throw> X<exception> X<raise> X<$@> X<abort>
1239 Outside an C<eval>, prints the value of LIST to C<STDERR> and
1240 exits with the current value of C<$!> (errno). If C<$!> is C<0>,
1241 exits with the value of C<<< ($? >> 8) >>> (backtick `command`
1242 status). If C<<< ($? >> 8) >>> is C<0>, exits with C<255>. Inside
1243 an C<eval(),> the error message is stuffed into C<$@> and the
1244 C<eval> is terminated with the undefined value. This makes
1245 C<die> the way to raise an exception.
1247 Equivalent examples:
1249 die "Can't cd to spool: $!\n" unless chdir '/usr/spool/news';
1250 chdir '/usr/spool/news' or die "Can't cd to spool: $!\n"
1252 If the last element of LIST does not end in a newline, the current
1253 script line number and input line number (if any) are also printed,
1254 and a newline is supplied. Note that the "input line number" (also
1255 known as "chunk") is subject to whatever notion of "line" happens to
1256 be currently in effect, and is also available as the special variable
1257 C<$.>. See L<perlvar/"$/"> and L<perlvar/"$.">.
1259 Hint: sometimes appending C<", stopped"> to your message will cause it
1260 to make better sense when the string C<"at foo line 123"> is appended.
1261 Suppose you are running script "canasta".
1263 die "/etc/games is no good";
1264 die "/etc/games is no good, stopped";
1266 produce, respectively
1268 /etc/games is no good at canasta line 123.
1269 /etc/games is no good, stopped at canasta line 123.
1271 See also exit(), warn(), and the Carp module.
1273 If LIST is empty and C<$@> already contains a value (typically from a
1274 previous eval) that value is reused after appending C<"\t...propagated">.
1275 This is useful for propagating exceptions:
1278 die unless $@ =~ /Expected exception/;
1280 If LIST is empty and C<$@> contains an object reference that has a
1281 C<PROPAGATE> method, that method will be called with additional file
1282 and line number parameters. The return value replaces the value in
1283 C<$@>. i.e. as if C<< $@ = eval { $@->PROPAGATE(__FILE__, __LINE__) }; >>
1286 If C<$@> is empty then the string C<"Died"> is used.
1288 die() can also be called with a reference argument. If this happens to be
1289 trapped within an eval(), $@ contains the reference. This behavior permits
1290 a more elaborate exception handling implementation using objects that
1291 maintain arbitrary state about the nature of the exception. Such a scheme
1292 is sometimes preferable to matching particular string values of $@ using
1293 regular expressions. Because $@ is a global variable, and eval() may be
1294 used within object implementations, care must be taken that analyzing the
1295 error object doesn't replace the reference in the global variable. The
1296 easiest solution is to make a local copy of the reference before doing
1297 other manipulations. Here's an example:
1299 use Scalar::Util 'blessed';
1301 eval { ... ; die Some::Module::Exception->new( FOO => "bar" ) };
1302 if (my $ev_err = $@) {
1303 if (blessed($ev_err) && $ev_err->isa("Some::Module::Exception")) {
1304 # handle Some::Module::Exception
1307 # handle all other possible exceptions
1311 Because perl will stringify uncaught exception messages before displaying
1312 them, you may want to overload stringification operations on such custom
1313 exception objects. See L<overload> for details about that.
1315 You can arrange for a callback to be run just before the C<die>
1316 does its deed, by setting the C<$SIG{__DIE__}> hook. The associated
1317 handler will be called with the error text and can change the error
1318 message, if it sees fit, by calling C<die> again. See
1319 L<perlvar/$SIG{expr}> for details on setting C<%SIG> entries, and
1320 L<"eval BLOCK"> for some examples. Although this feature was
1321 to be run only right before your program was to exit, this is not
1322 currently the case--the C<$SIG{__DIE__}> hook is currently called
1323 even inside eval()ed blocks/strings! If one wants the hook to do
1324 nothing in such situations, put
1328 as the first line of the handler (see L<perlvar/$^S>). Because
1329 this promotes strange action at a distance, this counterintuitive
1330 behavior may be fixed in a future release.
1335 Not really a function. Returns the value of the last command in the
1336 sequence of commands indicated by BLOCK. When modified by the C<while> or
1337 C<until> loop modifier, executes the BLOCK once before testing the loop
1338 condition. (On other statements the loop modifiers test the conditional
1341 C<do BLOCK> does I<not> count as a loop, so the loop control statements
1342 C<next>, C<last>, or C<redo> cannot be used to leave or restart the block.
1343 See L<perlsyn> for alternative strategies.
1345 =item do SUBROUTINE(LIST)
1348 This form of subroutine call is deprecated. See L<perlsub>.
1353 Uses the value of EXPR as a filename and executes the contents of the
1354 file as a Perl script.
1362 except that it's more efficient and concise, keeps track of the current
1363 filename for error messages, searches the @INC directories, and updates
1364 C<%INC> if the file is found. See L<perlvar/Predefined Names> for these
1365 variables. It also differs in that code evaluated with C<do FILENAME>
1366 cannot see lexicals in the enclosing scope; C<eval STRING> does. It's the
1367 same, however, in that it does reparse the file every time you call it,
1368 so you probably don't want to do this inside a loop.
1370 If C<do> cannot read the file, it returns undef and sets C<$!> to the
1371 error. If C<do> can read the file but cannot compile it, it
1372 returns undef and sets an error message in C<$@>. If the file is
1373 successfully compiled, C<do> returns the value of the last expression
1376 Note that inclusion of library modules is better done with the
1377 C<use> and C<require> operators, which also do automatic error checking
1378 and raise an exception if there's a problem.
1380 You might like to use C<do> to read in a program configuration
1381 file. Manual error checking can be done this way:
1383 # read in config files: system first, then user
1384 for $file ("/share/prog/defaults.rc",
1385 "$ENV{HOME}/.someprogrc")
1387 unless ($return = do $file) {
1388 warn "couldn't parse $file: $@" if $@;
1389 warn "couldn't do $file: $!" unless defined $return;
1390 warn "couldn't run $file" unless $return;
1395 X<dump> X<core> X<undump>
1399 This function causes an immediate core dump. See also the B<-u>
1400 command-line switch in L<perlrun>, which does the same thing.
1401 Primarily this is so that you can use the B<undump> program (not
1402 supplied) to turn your core dump into an executable binary after
1403 having initialized all your variables at the beginning of the
1404 program. When the new binary is executed it will begin by executing
1405 a C<goto LABEL> (with all the restrictions that C<goto> suffers).
1406 Think of it as a goto with an intervening core dump and reincarnation.
1407 If C<LABEL> is omitted, restarts the program from the top.
1409 B<WARNING>: Any files opened at the time of the dump will I<not>
1410 be open any more when the program is reincarnated, with possible
1411 resulting confusion on the part of Perl.
1413 This function is now largely obsolete, mostly because it's very hard to
1414 convert a core file into an executable. That's why you should now invoke
1415 it as C<CORE::dump()>, if you don't want to be warned against a possible
1419 X<each> X<hash, iterator>
1424 When called in list context, returns a 2-element list consisting of the
1425 key and value for the next element of a hash, or the index and value for
1426 the next element of an array, so that you can iterate over it. When called
1427 in scalar context, returns only the key for the next element in the hash
1428 (or the index for an array).
1430 Hash entries are returned in an apparently random order. The actual random
1431 order is subject to change in future versions of perl, but it is
1432 guaranteed to be in the same order as either the C<keys> or C<values>
1433 function would produce on the same (unmodified) hash. Since Perl
1434 5.8.2 the ordering can be different even between different runs of Perl
1435 for security reasons (see L<perlsec/"Algorithmic Complexity Attacks">).
1437 When the hash or array is entirely read, a null array is returned in list
1438 context (which when assigned produces a false (C<0>) value), and C<undef> in
1439 scalar context. The next call to C<each> after that will start iterating
1440 again. There is a single iterator for each hash or array, shared by all
1441 C<each>, C<keys>, and C<values> function calls in the program; it can be
1442 reset by reading all the elements from the hash or array, or by evaluating
1443 C<keys HASH>, C<values HASH>, C<keys ARRAY>, or C<values ARRAY>. If you add
1444 or delete elements of a hash while you're
1445 iterating over it, you may get entries skipped or duplicated, so
1446 don't. Exception: It is always safe to delete the item most recently
1447 returned by C<each()>, which means that the following code will work:
1449 while (($key, $value) = each %hash) {
1451 delete $hash{$key}; # This is safe
1454 The following prints out your environment like the printenv(1) program,
1455 only in a different order:
1457 while (($key,$value) = each %ENV) {
1458 print "$key=$value\n";
1461 See also C<keys>, C<values> and C<sort>.
1463 =item eof FILEHANDLE
1472 Returns 1 if the next read on FILEHANDLE will return end of file, or if
1473 FILEHANDLE is not open. FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value
1474 gives the real filehandle. (Note that this function actually
1475 reads a character and then C<ungetc>s it, so isn't very useful in an
1476 interactive context.) Do not read from a terminal file (or call
1477 C<eof(FILEHANDLE)> on it) after end-of-file is reached. File types such
1478 as terminals may lose the end-of-file condition if you do.
1480 An C<eof> without an argument uses the last file read. Using C<eof()>
1481 with empty parentheses is very different. It refers to the pseudo file
1482 formed from the files listed on the command line and accessed via the
1483 C<< <> >> operator. Since C<< <> >> isn't explicitly opened,
1484 as a normal filehandle is, an C<eof()> before C<< <> >> has been
1485 used will cause C<@ARGV> to be examined to determine if input is
1486 available. Similarly, an C<eof()> after C<< <> >> has returned
1487 end-of-file will assume you are processing another C<@ARGV> list,
1488 and if you haven't set C<@ARGV>, will read input from C<STDIN>;
1489 see L<perlop/"I/O Operators">.
1491 In a C<< while (<>) >> loop, C<eof> or C<eof(ARGV)> can be used to
1492 detect the end of each file, C<eof()> will only detect the end of the
1493 last file. Examples:
1495 # reset line numbering on each input file
1497 next if /^\s*#/; # skip comments
1500 close ARGV if eof; # Not eof()!
1503 # insert dashes just before last line of last file
1505 if (eof()) { # check for end of last file
1506 print "--------------\n";
1509 last if eof(); # needed if we're reading from a terminal
1512 Practical hint: you almost never need to use C<eof> in Perl, because the
1513 input operators typically return C<undef> when they run out of data, or if
1517 X<eval> X<try> X<catch> X<evaluate> X<parse> X<execute>
1518 X<error, handling> X<exception, handling>
1524 In the first form, the return value of EXPR is parsed and executed as if it
1525 were a little Perl program. The value of the expression (which is itself
1526 determined within scalar context) is first parsed, and if there weren't any
1527 errors, executed in the lexical context of the current Perl program, so
1528 that any variable settings or subroutine and format definitions remain
1529 afterwards. Note that the value is parsed every time the C<eval> executes.
1530 If EXPR is omitted, evaluates C<$_>. This form is typically used to
1531 delay parsing and subsequent execution of the text of EXPR until run time.
1533 In the second form, the code within the BLOCK is parsed only once--at the
1534 same time the code surrounding the C<eval> itself was parsed--and executed
1535 within the context of the current Perl program. This form is typically
1536 used to trap exceptions more efficiently than the first (see below), while
1537 also providing the benefit of checking the code within BLOCK at compile
1540 The final semicolon, if any, may be omitted from the value of EXPR or within
1543 In both forms, the value returned is the value of the last expression
1544 evaluated inside the mini-program; a return statement may be also used, just
1545 as with subroutines. The expression providing the return value is evaluated
1546 in void, scalar, or list context, depending on the context of the C<eval>
1547 itself. See L</wantarray> for more on how the evaluation context can be
1550 If there is a syntax error or runtime error, or a C<die> statement is
1551 executed, an undefined value is returned by C<eval>, and C<$@> is set to the
1552 error message. If there was no error, C<$@> is guaranteed to be a null
1553 string. Beware that using C<eval> neither silences perl from printing
1554 warnings to STDERR, nor does it stuff the text of warning messages into C<$@>.
1555 To do either of those, you have to use the C<$SIG{__WARN__}> facility, or
1556 turn off warnings inside the BLOCK or EXPR using S<C<no warnings 'all'>>.
1557 See L</warn>, L<perlvar>, L<warnings> and L<perllexwarn>.
1559 Note that, because C<eval> traps otherwise-fatal errors, it is useful for
1560 determining whether a particular feature (such as C<socket> or C<symlink>)
1561 is implemented. It is also Perl's exception trapping mechanism, where
1562 the die operator is used to raise exceptions.
1564 If the code to be executed doesn't vary, you may use the eval-BLOCK
1565 form to trap run-time errors without incurring the penalty of
1566 recompiling each time. The error, if any, is still returned in C<$@>.
1569 # make divide-by-zero nonfatal
1570 eval { $answer = $a / $b; }; warn $@ if $@;
1572 # same thing, but less efficient
1573 eval '$answer = $a / $b'; warn $@ if $@;
1575 # a compile-time error
1576 eval { $answer = }; # WRONG
1579 eval '$answer ='; # sets $@
1581 Using the C<eval{}> form as an exception trap in libraries does have some
1582 issues. Due to the current arguably broken state of C<__DIE__> hooks, you
1583 may wish not to trigger any C<__DIE__> hooks that user code may have installed.
1584 You can use the C<local $SIG{__DIE__}> construct for this purpose,
1585 as shown in this example:
1587 # a very private exception trap for divide-by-zero
1588 eval { local $SIG{'__DIE__'}; $answer = $a / $b; };
1591 This is especially significant, given that C<__DIE__> hooks can call
1592 C<die> again, which has the effect of changing their error messages:
1594 # __DIE__ hooks may modify error messages
1596 local $SIG{'__DIE__'} =
1597 sub { (my $x = $_[0]) =~ s/foo/bar/g; die $x };
1598 eval { die "foo lives here" };
1599 print $@ if $@; # prints "bar lives here"
1602 Because this promotes action at a distance, this counterintuitive behavior
1603 may be fixed in a future release.
1605 With an C<eval>, you should be especially careful to remember what's
1606 being looked at when:
1612 eval { $x }; # CASE 4
1614 eval "\$$x++"; # CASE 5
1617 Cases 1 and 2 above behave identically: they run the code contained in
1618 the variable $x. (Although case 2 has misleading double quotes making
1619 the reader wonder what else might be happening (nothing is).) Cases 3
1620 and 4 likewise behave in the same way: they run the code C<'$x'>, which
1621 does nothing but return the value of $x. (Case 4 is preferred for
1622 purely visual reasons, but it also has the advantage of compiling at
1623 compile-time instead of at run-time.) Case 5 is a place where
1624 normally you I<would> like to use double quotes, except that in this
1625 particular situation, you can just use symbolic references instead, as
1628 C<eval BLOCK> does I<not> count as a loop, so the loop control statements
1629 C<next>, C<last>, or C<redo> cannot be used to leave or restart the block.
1631 Note that as a very special case, an C<eval ''> executed within the C<DB>
1632 package doesn't see the usual surrounding lexical scope, but rather the
1633 scope of the first non-DB piece of code that called it. You don't normally
1634 need to worry about this unless you are writing a Perl debugger.
1639 =item exec PROGRAM LIST
1641 The C<exec> function executes a system command I<and never returns>--
1642 use C<system> instead of C<exec> if you want it to return. It fails and
1643 returns false only if the command does not exist I<and> it is executed
1644 directly instead of via your system's command shell (see below).
1646 Since it's a common mistake to use C<exec> instead of C<system>, Perl
1647 warns you if there is a following statement which isn't C<die>, C<warn>,
1648 or C<exit> (if C<-w> is set - but you always do that). If you
1649 I<really> want to follow an C<exec> with some other statement, you
1650 can use one of these styles to avoid the warning:
1652 exec ('foo') or print STDERR "couldn't exec foo: $!";
1653 { exec ('foo') }; print STDERR "couldn't exec foo: $!";
1655 If there is more than one argument in LIST, or if LIST is an array
1656 with more than one value, calls execvp(3) with the arguments in LIST.
1657 If there is only one scalar argument or an array with one element in it,
1658 the argument is checked for shell metacharacters, and if there are any,
1659 the entire argument is passed to the system's command shell for parsing
1660 (this is C</bin/sh -c> on Unix platforms, but varies on other platforms).
1661 If there are no shell metacharacters in the argument, it is split into
1662 words and passed directly to C<execvp>, which is more efficient.
1665 exec '/bin/echo', 'Your arguments are: ', @ARGV;
1666 exec "sort $outfile | uniq";
1668 If you don't really want to execute the first argument, but want to lie
1669 to the program you are executing about its own name, you can specify
1670 the program you actually want to run as an "indirect object" (without a
1671 comma) in front of the LIST. (This always forces interpretation of the
1672 LIST as a multivalued list, even if there is only a single scalar in
1675 $shell = '/bin/csh';
1676 exec $shell '-sh'; # pretend it's a login shell
1680 exec {'/bin/csh'} '-sh'; # pretend it's a login shell
1682 When the arguments get executed via the system shell, results will
1683 be subject to its quirks and capabilities. See L<perlop/"`STRING`">
1686 Using an indirect object with C<exec> or C<system> is also more
1687 secure. This usage (which also works fine with system()) forces
1688 interpretation of the arguments as a multivalued list, even if the
1689 list had just one argument. That way you're safe from the shell
1690 expanding wildcards or splitting up words with whitespace in them.
1692 @args = ( "echo surprise" );
1694 exec @args; # subject to shell escapes
1696 exec { $args[0] } @args; # safe even with one-arg list
1698 The first version, the one without the indirect object, ran the I<echo>
1699 program, passing it C<"surprise"> an argument. The second version
1700 didn't--it tried to run a program literally called I<"echo surprise">,
1701 didn't find it, and set C<$?> to a non-zero value indicating failure.
1703 Beginning with v5.6.0, Perl will attempt to flush all files opened for
1704 output before the exec, but this may not be supported on some platforms
1705 (see L<perlport>). To be safe, you may need to set C<$|> ($AUTOFLUSH
1706 in English) or call the C<autoflush()> method of C<IO::Handle> on any
1707 open handles in order to avoid lost output.
1709 Note that C<exec> will not call your C<END> blocks, nor will it call
1710 any C<DESTROY> methods in your objects.
1713 X<exists> X<autovivification>
1715 Given an expression that specifies a hash element or array element,
1716 returns true if the specified element in the hash or array has ever
1717 been initialized, even if the corresponding value is undefined. The
1718 element is not autovivified if it doesn't exist.
1720 print "Exists\n" if exists $hash{$key};
1721 print "Defined\n" if defined $hash{$key};
1722 print "True\n" if $hash{$key};
1724 print "Exists\n" if exists $array[$index];
1725 print "Defined\n" if defined $array[$index];
1726 print "True\n" if $array[$index];
1728 A hash or array element can be true only if it's defined, and defined if
1729 it exists, but the reverse doesn't necessarily hold true.
1731 Given an expression that specifies the name of a subroutine,
1732 returns true if the specified subroutine has ever been declared, even
1733 if it is undefined. Mentioning a subroutine name for exists or defined
1734 does not count as declaring it. Note that a subroutine which does not
1735 exist may still be callable: its package may have an C<AUTOLOAD>
1736 method that makes it spring into existence the first time that it is
1737 called -- see L<perlsub>.
1739 print "Exists\n" if exists &subroutine;
1740 print "Defined\n" if defined &subroutine;
1742 Note that the EXPR can be arbitrarily complicated as long as the final
1743 operation is a hash or array key lookup or subroutine name:
1745 if (exists $ref->{A}->{B}->{$key}) { }
1746 if (exists $hash{A}{B}{$key}) { }
1748 if (exists $ref->{A}->{B}->[$ix]) { }
1749 if (exists $hash{A}{B}[$ix]) { }
1751 if (exists &{$ref->{A}{B}{$key}}) { }
1753 Although the deepest nested array or hash will not spring into existence
1754 just because its existence was tested, any intervening ones will.
1755 Thus C<< $ref->{"A"} >> and C<< $ref->{"A"}->{"B"} >> will spring
1756 into existence due to the existence test for the $key element above.
1757 This happens anywhere the arrow operator is used, including even:
1760 if (exists $ref->{"Some key"}) { }
1761 print $ref; # prints HASH(0x80d3d5c)
1763 This surprising autovivification in what does not at first--or even
1764 second--glance appear to be an lvalue context may be fixed in a future
1767 Use of a subroutine call, rather than a subroutine name, as an argument
1768 to exists() is an error.
1771 exists &sub(); # Error
1774 X<exit> X<terminate> X<abort>
1778 Evaluates EXPR and exits immediately with that value. Example:
1781 exit 0 if $ans =~ /^[Xx]/;
1783 See also C<die>. If EXPR is omitted, exits with C<0> status. The only
1784 universally recognized values for EXPR are C<0> for success and C<1>
1785 for error; other values are subject to interpretation depending on the
1786 environment in which the Perl program is running. For example, exiting
1787 69 (EX_UNAVAILABLE) from a I<sendmail> incoming-mail filter will cause
1788 the mailer to return the item undelivered, but that's not true everywhere.
1790 Don't use C<exit> to abort a subroutine if there's any chance that
1791 someone might want to trap whatever error happened. Use C<die> instead,
1792 which can be trapped by an C<eval>.
1794 The exit() function does not always exit immediately. It calls any
1795 defined C<END> routines first, but these C<END> routines may not
1796 themselves abort the exit. Likewise any object destructors that need to
1797 be called are called before the real exit. If this is a problem, you
1798 can call C<POSIX:_exit($status)> to avoid END and destructor processing.
1799 See L<perlmod> for details.
1802 X<exp> X<exponential> X<antilog> X<antilogarithm> X<e>
1806 Returns I<e> (the natural logarithm base) to the power of EXPR.
1807 If EXPR is omitted, gives C<exp($_)>.
1809 =item fcntl FILEHANDLE,FUNCTION,SCALAR
1812 Implements the fcntl(2) function. You'll probably have to say
1816 first to get the correct constant definitions. Argument processing and
1817 value return works just like C<ioctl> below.
1821 fcntl($filehandle, F_GETFL, $packed_return_buffer)
1822 or die "can't fcntl F_GETFL: $!";
1824 You don't have to check for C<defined> on the return from C<fcntl>.
1825 Like C<ioctl>, it maps a C<0> return from the system call into
1826 C<"0 but true"> in Perl. This string is true in boolean context and C<0>
1827 in numeric context. It is also exempt from the normal B<-w> warnings
1828 on improper numeric conversions.
1830 Note that C<fcntl> will produce a fatal error if used on a machine that
1831 doesn't implement fcntl(2). See the Fcntl module or your fcntl(2)
1832 manpage to learn what functions are available on your system.
1834 Here's an example of setting a filehandle named C<REMOTE> to be
1835 non-blocking at the system level. You'll have to negotiate C<$|>
1836 on your own, though.
1838 use Fcntl qw(F_GETFL F_SETFL O_NONBLOCK);
1840 $flags = fcntl(REMOTE, F_GETFL, 0)
1841 or die "Can't get flags for the socket: $!\n";
1843 $flags = fcntl(REMOTE, F_SETFL, $flags | O_NONBLOCK)
1844 or die "Can't set flags for the socket: $!\n";
1846 =item fileno FILEHANDLE
1849 Returns the file descriptor for a filehandle, or undefined if the
1850 filehandle is not open. This is mainly useful for constructing
1851 bitmaps for C<select> and low-level POSIX tty-handling operations.
1852 If FILEHANDLE is an expression, the value is taken as an indirect
1853 filehandle, generally its name.
1855 You can use this to find out whether two handles refer to the
1856 same underlying descriptor:
1858 if (fileno(THIS) == fileno(THAT)) {
1859 print "THIS and THAT are dups\n";
1862 (Filehandles connected to memory objects via new features of C<open> may
1863 return undefined even though they are open.)
1866 =item flock FILEHANDLE,OPERATION
1867 X<flock> X<lock> X<locking>
1869 Calls flock(2), or an emulation of it, on FILEHANDLE. Returns true
1870 for success, false on failure. Produces a fatal error if used on a
1871 machine that doesn't implement flock(2), fcntl(2) locking, or lockf(3).
1872 C<flock> is Perl's portable file locking interface, although it locks
1873 only entire files, not records.
1875 Two potentially non-obvious but traditional C<flock> semantics are
1876 that it waits indefinitely until the lock is granted, and that its locks
1877 B<merely advisory>. Such discretionary locks are more flexible, but offer
1878 fewer guarantees. This means that programs that do not also use C<flock>
1879 may modify files locked with C<flock>. See L<perlport>,
1880 your port's specific documentation, or your system-specific local manpages
1881 for details. It's best to assume traditional behavior if you're writing
1882 portable programs. (But if you're not, you should as always feel perfectly
1883 free to write for your own system's idiosyncrasies (sometimes called
1884 "features"). Slavish adherence to portability concerns shouldn't get
1885 in the way of your getting your job done.)
1887 OPERATION is one of LOCK_SH, LOCK_EX, or LOCK_UN, possibly combined with
1888 LOCK_NB. These constants are traditionally valued 1, 2, 8 and 4, but
1889 you can use the symbolic names if you import them from the Fcntl module,
1890 either individually, or as a group using the ':flock' tag. LOCK_SH
1891 requests a shared lock, LOCK_EX requests an exclusive lock, and LOCK_UN
1892 releases a previously requested lock. If LOCK_NB is bitwise-or'ed with
1893 LOCK_SH or LOCK_EX then C<flock> will return immediately rather than blocking
1894 waiting for the lock (check the return status to see if you got it).
1896 To avoid the possibility of miscoordination, Perl now flushes FILEHANDLE
1897 before locking or unlocking it.
1899 Note that the emulation built with lockf(3) doesn't provide shared
1900 locks, and it requires that FILEHANDLE be open with write intent. These
1901 are the semantics that lockf(3) implements. Most if not all systems
1902 implement lockf(3) in terms of fcntl(2) locking, though, so the
1903 differing semantics shouldn't bite too many people.
1905 Note that the fcntl(2) emulation of flock(3) requires that FILEHANDLE
1906 be open with read intent to use LOCK_SH and requires that it be open
1907 with write intent to use LOCK_EX.
1909 Note also that some versions of C<flock> cannot lock things over the
1910 network; you would need to use the more system-specific C<fcntl> for
1911 that. If you like you can force Perl to ignore your system's flock(2)
1912 function, and so provide its own fcntl(2)-based emulation, by passing
1913 the switch C<-Ud_flock> to the F<Configure> program when you configure
1916 Here's a mailbox appender for BSD systems.
1918 use Fcntl ':flock'; # import LOCK_* constants
1921 flock(MBOX,LOCK_EX);
1922 # and, in case someone appended
1923 # while we were waiting...
1928 flock(MBOX,LOCK_UN);
1931 open(MBOX, ">>/usr/spool/mail/$ENV{'USER'}")
1932 or die "Can't open mailbox: $!";
1935 print MBOX $msg,"\n\n";
1938 On systems that support a real flock(), locks are inherited across fork()
1939 calls, whereas those that must resort to the more capricious fcntl()
1940 function lose the locks, making it harder to write servers.
1942 See also L<DB_File> for other flock() examples.
1945 X<fork> X<child> X<parent>
1947 Does a fork(2) system call to create a new process running the
1948 same program at the same point. It returns the child pid to the
1949 parent process, C<0> to the child process, or C<undef> if the fork is
1950 unsuccessful. File descriptors (and sometimes locks on those descriptors)
1951 are shared, while everything else is copied. On most systems supporting
1952 fork(), great care has gone into making it extremely efficient (for
1953 example, using copy-on-write technology on data pages), making it the
1954 dominant paradigm for multitasking over the last few decades.
1956 Beginning with v5.6.0, Perl will attempt to flush all files opened for
1957 output before forking the child process, but this may not be supported
1958 on some platforms (see L<perlport>). To be safe, you may need to set
1959 C<$|> ($AUTOFLUSH in English) or call the C<autoflush()> method of
1960 C<IO::Handle> on any open handles in order to avoid duplicate output.
1962 If you C<fork> without ever waiting on your children, you will
1963 accumulate zombies. On some systems, you can avoid this by setting
1964 C<$SIG{CHLD}> to C<"IGNORE">. See also L<perlipc> for more examples of
1965 forking and reaping moribund children.
1967 Note that if your forked child inherits system file descriptors like
1968 STDIN and STDOUT that are actually connected by a pipe or socket, even
1969 if you exit, then the remote server (such as, say, a CGI script or a
1970 backgrounded job launched from a remote shell) won't think you're done.
1971 You should reopen those to F</dev/null> if it's any issue.
1976 Declare a picture format for use by the C<write> function. For
1980 Test: @<<<<<<<< @||||| @>>>>>
1981 $str, $%, '$' . int($num)
1985 $num = $cost/$quantity;
1989 See L<perlform> for many details and examples.
1991 =item formline PICTURE,LIST
1994 This is an internal function used by C<format>s, though you may call it,
1995 too. It formats (see L<perlform>) a list of values according to the
1996 contents of PICTURE, placing the output into the format output
1997 accumulator, C<$^A> (or C<$ACCUMULATOR> in English).
1998 Eventually, when a C<write> is done, the contents of
1999 C<$^A> are written to some filehandle. You could also read C<$^A>
2000 and then set C<$^A> back to C<"">. Note that a format typically
2001 does one C<formline> per line of form, but the C<formline> function itself
2002 doesn't care how many newlines are embedded in the PICTURE. This means
2003 that the C<~> and C<~~> tokens will treat the entire PICTURE as a single line.
2004 You may therefore need to use multiple formlines to implement a single
2005 record format, just like the format compiler.
2007 Be careful if you put double quotes around the picture, because an C<@>
2008 character may be taken to mean the beginning of an array name.
2009 C<formline> always returns true. See L<perlform> for other examples.
2011 =item getc FILEHANDLE
2012 X<getc> X<getchar> X<character> X<file, read>
2016 Returns the next character from the input file attached to FILEHANDLE,
2017 or the undefined value at end of file, or if there was an error (in
2018 the latter case C<$!> is set). If FILEHANDLE is omitted, reads from
2019 STDIN. This is not particularly efficient. However, it cannot be
2020 used by itself to fetch single characters without waiting for the user
2021 to hit enter. For that, try something more like:
2024 system "stty cbreak </dev/tty >/dev/tty 2>&1";
2027 system "stty", '-icanon', 'eol', "\001";
2033 system "stty -cbreak </dev/tty >/dev/tty 2>&1";
2036 system "stty", 'icanon', 'eol', '^@'; # ASCII null
2040 Determination of whether $BSD_STYLE should be set
2041 is left as an exercise to the reader.
2043 The C<POSIX::getattr> function can do this more portably on
2044 systems purporting POSIX compliance. See also the C<Term::ReadKey>
2045 module from your nearest CPAN site; details on CPAN can be found on
2049 X<getlogin> X<login>
2051 This implements the C library function of the same name, which on most
2052 systems returns the current login from F</etc/utmp>, if any. If null,
2055 $login = getlogin || getpwuid($<) || "Kilroy";
2057 Do not consider C<getlogin> for authentication: it is not as
2058 secure as C<getpwuid>.
2060 =item getpeername SOCKET
2061 X<getpeername> X<peer>
2063 Returns the packed sockaddr address of other end of the SOCKET connection.
2066 $hersockaddr = getpeername(SOCK);
2067 ($port, $iaddr) = sockaddr_in($hersockaddr);
2068 $herhostname = gethostbyaddr($iaddr, AF_INET);
2069 $herstraddr = inet_ntoa($iaddr);
2074 Returns the current process group for the specified PID. Use
2075 a PID of C<0> to get the current process group for the
2076 current process. Will raise an exception if used on a machine that
2077 doesn't implement getpgrp(2). If PID is omitted, returns process
2078 group of current process. Note that the POSIX version of C<getpgrp>
2079 does not accept a PID argument, so only C<PID==0> is truly portable.
2082 X<getppid> X<parent> X<pid>
2084 Returns the process id of the parent process.
2086 Note for Linux users: on Linux, the C functions C<getpid()> and
2087 C<getppid()> return different values from different threads. In order to
2088 be portable, this behavior is not reflected by the perl-level function
2089 C<getppid()>, that returns a consistent value across threads. If you want
2090 to call the underlying C<getppid()>, you may use the CPAN module
2093 =item getpriority WHICH,WHO
2094 X<getpriority> X<priority> X<nice>
2096 Returns the current priority for a process, a process group, or a user.
2097 (See L<getpriority(2)>.) Will raise a fatal exception if used on a
2098 machine that doesn't implement getpriority(2).
2101 X<getpwnam> X<getgrnam> X<gethostbyname> X<getnetbyname> X<getprotobyname>
2102 X<getpwuid> X<getgrgid> X<getservbyname> X<gethostbyaddr> X<getnetbyaddr>
2103 X<getprotobynumber> X<getservbyport> X<getpwent> X<getgrent> X<gethostent>
2104 X<getnetent> X<getprotoent> X<getservent> X<setpwent> X<setgrent> X<sethostent>
2105 X<setnetent> X<setprotoent> X<setservent> X<endpwent> X<endgrent> X<endhostent>
2106 X<endnetent> X<endprotoent> X<endservent>
2110 =item gethostbyname NAME
2112 =item getnetbyname NAME
2114 =item getprotobyname NAME
2120 =item getservbyname NAME,PROTO
2122 =item gethostbyaddr ADDR,ADDRTYPE
2124 =item getnetbyaddr ADDR,ADDRTYPE
2126 =item getprotobynumber NUMBER
2128 =item getservbyport PORT,PROTO
2146 =item sethostent STAYOPEN
2148 =item setnetent STAYOPEN
2150 =item setprotoent STAYOPEN
2152 =item setservent STAYOPEN
2166 These routines perform the same functions as their counterparts in the
2167 system library. In list context, the return values from the
2168 various get routines are as follows:
2170 ($name,$passwd,$uid,$gid,
2171 $quota,$comment,$gcos,$dir,$shell,$expire) = getpw*
2172 ($name,$passwd,$gid,$members) = getgr*
2173 ($name,$aliases,$addrtype,$length,@addrs) = gethost*
2174 ($name,$aliases,$addrtype,$net) = getnet*
2175 ($name,$aliases,$proto) = getproto*
2176 ($name,$aliases,$port,$proto) = getserv*
2178 (If the entry doesn't exist you get a null list.)
2180 The exact meaning of the $gcos field varies but it usually contains
2181 the real name of the user (as opposed to the login name) and other
2182 information pertaining to the user. Beware, however, that in many
2183 system users are able to change this information and therefore it
2184 cannot be trusted and therefore the $gcos is tainted (see
2185 L<perlsec>). The $passwd and $shell, user's encrypted password and
2186 login shell, are also tainted, because of the same reason.
2188 In scalar context, you get the name, unless the function was a
2189 lookup by name, in which case you get the other thing, whatever it is.
2190 (If the entry doesn't exist you get the undefined value.) For example:
2192 $uid = getpwnam($name);
2193 $name = getpwuid($num);
2195 $gid = getgrnam($name);
2196 $name = getgrgid($num);
2200 In I<getpw*()> the fields $quota, $comment, and $expire are special
2201 cases in the sense that in many systems they are unsupported. If the
2202 $quota is unsupported, it is an empty scalar. If it is supported, it
2203 usually encodes the disk quota. If the $comment field is unsupported,
2204 it is an empty scalar. If it is supported it usually encodes some
2205 administrative comment about the user. In some systems the $quota
2206 field may be $change or $age, fields that have to do with password
2207 aging. In some systems the $comment field may be $class. The $expire
2208 field, if present, encodes the expiration period of the account or the
2209 password. For the availability and the exact meaning of these fields
2210 in your system, please consult your getpwnam(3) documentation and your
2211 F<pwd.h> file. You can also find out from within Perl what your
2212 $quota and $comment fields mean and whether you have the $expire field
2213 by using the C<Config> module and the values C<d_pwquota>, C<d_pwage>,
2214 C<d_pwchange>, C<d_pwcomment>, and C<d_pwexpire>. Shadow password
2215 files are only supported if your vendor has implemented them in the
2216 intuitive fashion that calling the regular C library routines gets the
2217 shadow versions if you're running under privilege or if there exists
2218 the shadow(3) functions as found in System V (this includes Solaris
2219 and Linux.) Those systems that implement a proprietary shadow password
2220 facility are unlikely to be supported.
2222 The $members value returned by I<getgr*()> is a space separated list of
2223 the login names of the members of the group.
2225 For the I<gethost*()> functions, if the C<h_errno> variable is supported in
2226 C, it will be returned to you via C<$?> if the function call fails. The
2227 C<@addrs> value returned by a successful call is a list of the raw
2228 addresses returned by the corresponding system library call. In the
2229 Internet domain, each address is four bytes long and you can unpack it
2230 by saying something like:
2232 ($a,$b,$c,$d) = unpack('W4',$addr[0]);
2234 The Socket library makes this slightly easier:
2237 $iaddr = inet_aton("127.1"); # or whatever address
2238 $name = gethostbyaddr($iaddr, AF_INET);
2240 # or going the other way
2241 $straddr = inet_ntoa($iaddr);
2243 In the opposite way, to resolve a hostname to the IP address
2247 $packed_ip = gethostbyname("www.perl.org");
2248 if (defined $packed_ip) {
2249 $ip_address = inet_ntoa($packed_ip);
2252 Make sure <gethostbyname()> is called in SCALAR context and that
2253 its return value is checked for definedness.
2255 If you get tired of remembering which element of the return list
2256 contains which return value, by-name interfaces are provided
2257 in standard modules: C<File::stat>, C<Net::hostent>, C<Net::netent>,
2258 C<Net::protoent>, C<Net::servent>, C<Time::gmtime>, C<Time::localtime>,
2259 and C<User::grent>. These override the normal built-ins, supplying
2260 versions that return objects with the appropriate names
2261 for each field. For example:
2265 $is_his = (stat($filename)->uid == pwent($whoever)->uid);
2267 Even though it looks like they're the same method calls (uid),
2268 they aren't, because a C<File::stat> object is different from
2269 a C<User::pwent> object.
2271 =item getsockname SOCKET
2274 Returns the packed sockaddr address of this end of the SOCKET connection,
2275 in case you don't know the address because you have several different
2276 IPs that the connection might have come in on.
2279 $mysockaddr = getsockname(SOCK);
2280 ($port, $myaddr) = sockaddr_in($mysockaddr);
2281 printf "Connect to %s [%s]\n",
2282 scalar gethostbyaddr($myaddr, AF_INET),
2285 =item getsockopt SOCKET,LEVEL,OPTNAME
2288 Queries the option named OPTNAME associated with SOCKET at a given LEVEL.
2289 Options may exist at multiple protocol levels depending on the socket
2290 type, but at least the uppermost socket level SOL_SOCKET (defined in the
2291 C<Socket> module) will exist. To query options at another level the
2292 protocol number of the appropriate protocol controlling the option
2293 should be supplied. For example, to indicate that an option is to be
2294 interpreted by the TCP protocol, LEVEL should be set to the protocol
2295 number of TCP, which you can get using getprotobyname.
2297 The call returns a packed string representing the requested socket option,
2298 or C<undef> if there is an error (the error reason will be in $!). What
2299 exactly is in the packed string depends in the LEVEL and OPTNAME, consult
2300 your system documentation for details. A very common case however is that
2301 the option is an integer, in which case the result will be a packed
2302 integer which you can decode using unpack with the C<i> (or C<I>) format.
2304 An example testing if Nagle's algorithm is turned on on a socket:
2306 use Socket qw(:all);
2308 defined(my $tcp = getprotobyname("tcp"))
2309 or die "Could not determine the protocol number for tcp";
2310 # my $tcp = IPPROTO_TCP; # Alternative
2311 my $packed = getsockopt($socket, $tcp, TCP_NODELAY)
2312 or die "Could not query TCP_NODELAY socket option: $!";
2313 my $nodelay = unpack("I", $packed);
2314 print "Nagle's algorithm is turned ", $nodelay ? "off\n" : "on\n";
2318 X<glob> X<wildcard> X<filename, expansion> X<expand>
2322 In list context, returns a (possibly empty) list of filename expansions on
2323 the value of EXPR such as the standard Unix shell F</bin/csh> would do. In
2324 scalar context, glob iterates through such filename expansions, returning
2325 undef when the list is exhausted. This is the internal function
2326 implementing the C<< <*.c> >> operator, but you can use it directly. If
2327 EXPR is omitted, C<$_> is used. The C<< <*.c> >> operator is discussed in
2328 more detail in L<perlop/"I/O Operators">.
2330 Beginning with v5.6.0, this operator is implemented using the standard
2331 C<File::Glob> extension. See L<File::Glob> for details.
2334 X<gmtime> X<UTC> X<Greenwich>
2338 Works just like L<localtime> but the returned values are
2339 localized for the standard Greenwich time zone.
2341 Note: when called in list context, $isdst, the last value
2342 returned by gmtime is always C<0>. There is no
2343 Daylight Saving Time in GMT.
2345 See L<perlport/gmtime> for portability concerns.
2348 X<goto> X<jump> X<jmp>
2354 The C<goto-LABEL> form finds the statement labeled with LABEL and resumes
2355 execution there. It may not be used to go into any construct that
2356 requires initialization, such as a subroutine or a C<foreach> loop. It
2357 also can't be used to go into a construct that is optimized away,
2358 or to get out of a block or subroutine given to C<sort>.
2359 It can be used to go almost anywhere else within the dynamic scope,
2360 including out of subroutines, but it's usually better to use some other
2361 construct such as C<last> or C<die>. The author of Perl has never felt the
2362 need to use this form of C<goto> (in Perl, that is--C is another matter).
2363 (The difference being that C does not offer named loops combined with
2364 loop control. Perl does, and this replaces most structured uses of C<goto>
2365 in other languages.)
2367 The C<goto-EXPR> form expects a label name, whose scope will be resolved
2368 dynamically. This allows for computed C<goto>s per FORTRAN, but isn't
2369 necessarily recommended if you're optimizing for maintainability:
2371 goto ("FOO", "BAR", "GLARCH")[$i];
2373 The C<goto-&NAME> form is quite different from the other forms of
2374 C<goto>. In fact, it isn't a goto in the normal sense at all, and
2375 doesn't have the stigma associated with other gotos. Instead, it
2376 exits the current subroutine (losing any changes set by local()) and
2377 immediately calls in its place the named subroutine using the current
2378 value of @_. This is used by C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines that wish to
2379 load another subroutine and then pretend that the other subroutine had
2380 been called in the first place (except that any modifications to C<@_>
2381 in the current subroutine are propagated to the other subroutine.)
2382 After the C<goto>, not even C<caller> will be able to tell that this
2383 routine was called first.
2385 NAME needn't be the name of a subroutine; it can be a scalar variable
2386 containing a code reference, or a block that evaluates to a code
2389 =item grep BLOCK LIST
2392 =item grep EXPR,LIST
2394 This is similar in spirit to, but not the same as, grep(1) and its
2395 relatives. In particular, it is not limited to using regular expressions.
2397 Evaluates the BLOCK or EXPR for each element of LIST (locally setting
2398 C<$_> to each element) and returns the list value consisting of those
2399 elements for which the expression evaluated to true. In scalar
2400 context, returns the number of times the expression was true.
2402 @foo = grep(!/^#/, @bar); # weed out comments
2406 @foo = grep {!/^#/} @bar; # weed out comments
2408 Note that C<$_> is an alias to the list value, so it can be used to
2409 modify the elements of the LIST. While this is useful and supported,
2410 it can cause bizarre results if the elements of LIST are not variables.
2411 Similarly, grep returns aliases into the original list, much as a for
2412 loop's index variable aliases the list elements. That is, modifying an
2413 element of a list returned by grep (for example, in a C<foreach>, C<map>
2414 or another C<grep>) actually modifies the element in the original list.
2415 This is usually something to be avoided when writing clear code.
2417 If C<$_> is lexical in the scope where the C<grep> appears (because it has
2418 been declared with C<my $_>) then, in addition to being locally aliased to
2419 the list elements, C<$_> keeps being lexical inside the block; i.e. it
2420 can't be seen from the outside, avoiding any potential side-effects.
2422 See also L</map> for a list composed of the results of the BLOCK or EXPR.
2425 X<hex> X<hexadecimal>
2429 Interprets EXPR as a hex string and returns the corresponding value.
2430 (To convert strings that might start with either C<0>, C<0x>, or C<0b>, see
2431 L</oct>.) If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
2433 print hex '0xAf'; # prints '175'
2434 print hex 'aF'; # same
2436 Hex strings may only represent integers. Strings that would cause
2437 integer overflow trigger a warning. Leading whitespace is not stripped,
2438 unlike oct(). To present something as hex, look into L</printf>,
2439 L</sprintf>, or L</unpack>.
2444 There is no builtin C<import> function. It is just an ordinary
2445 method (subroutine) defined (or inherited) by modules that wish to export
2446 names to another module. The C<use> function calls the C<import> method
2447 for the package used. See also L</use>, L<perlmod>, and L<Exporter>.
2449 =item index STR,SUBSTR,POSITION
2450 X<index> X<indexOf> X<InStr>
2452 =item index STR,SUBSTR
2454 The index function searches for one string within another, but without
2455 the wildcard-like behavior of a full regular-expression pattern match.
2456 It returns the position of the first occurrence of SUBSTR in STR at
2457 or after POSITION. If POSITION is omitted, starts searching from the
2458 beginning of the string. POSITION before the beginning of the string
2459 or after its end is treated as if it were the beginning or the end,
2460 respectively. POSITION and the return value are based at C<0> (or whatever
2461 you've set the C<$[> variable to--but don't do that). If the substring
2462 is not found, C<index> returns one less than the base, ordinarily C<-1>.
2465 X<int> X<integer> X<truncate> X<trunc> X<floor>
2469 Returns the integer portion of EXPR. If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
2470 You should not use this function for rounding: one because it truncates
2471 towards C<0>, and two because machine representations of floating point
2472 numbers can sometimes produce counterintuitive results. For example,
2473 C<int(-6.725/0.025)> produces -268 rather than the correct -269; that's
2474 because it's really more like -268.99999999999994315658 instead. Usually,
2475 the C<sprintf>, C<printf>, or the C<POSIX::floor> and C<POSIX::ceil>
2476 functions will serve you better than will int().
2478 =item ioctl FILEHANDLE,FUNCTION,SCALAR
2481 Implements the ioctl(2) function. You'll probably first have to say
2483 require "sys/ioctl.ph"; # probably in $Config{archlib}/sys/ioctl.ph
2485 to get the correct function definitions. If F<sys/ioctl.ph> doesn't
2486 exist or doesn't have the correct definitions you'll have to roll your
2487 own, based on your C header files such as F<< <sys/ioctl.h> >>.
2488 (There is a Perl script called B<h2ph> that comes with the Perl kit that
2489 may help you in this, but it's nontrivial.) SCALAR will be read and/or
2490 written depending on the FUNCTION--a pointer to the string value of SCALAR
2491 will be passed as the third argument of the actual C<ioctl> call. (If SCALAR
2492 has no string value but does have a numeric value, that value will be
2493 passed rather than a pointer to the string value. To guarantee this to be
2494 true, add a C<0> to the scalar before using it.) The C<pack> and C<unpack>
2495 functions may be needed to manipulate the values of structures used by
2498 The return value of C<ioctl> (and C<fcntl>) is as follows:
2500 if OS returns: then Perl returns:
2502 0 string "0 but true"
2503 anything else that number
2505 Thus Perl returns true on success and false on failure, yet you can
2506 still easily determine the actual value returned by the operating
2509 $retval = ioctl(...) || -1;
2510 printf "System returned %d\n", $retval;
2512 The special string C<"0 but true"> is exempt from B<-w> complaints
2513 about improper numeric conversions.
2515 =item join EXPR,LIST
2518 Joins the separate strings of LIST into a single string with fields
2519 separated by the value of EXPR, and returns that new string. Example:
2521 $rec = join(':', $login,$passwd,$uid,$gid,$gcos,$home,$shell);
2523 Beware that unlike C<split>, C<join> doesn't take a pattern as its
2524 first argument. Compare L</split>.
2531 Returns a list consisting of all the keys of the named hash, or the indices
2532 of an array. (In scalar context, returns the number of keys or indices.)
2534 The keys of a hash are returned in an apparently random order. The actual
2535 random order is subject to change in future versions of perl, but it
2536 is guaranteed to be the same order as either the C<values> or C<each>
2537 function produces (given that the hash has not been modified). Since
2538 Perl 5.8.1 the ordering is different even between different runs of
2539 Perl for security reasons (see L<perlsec/"Algorithmic Complexity
2542 As a side effect, calling keys() resets the HASH or ARRAY's internal iterator
2543 (see L</each>). In particular, calling keys() in void context resets
2544 the iterator with no other overhead.
2546 Here is yet another way to print your environment:
2549 @values = values %ENV;
2551 print pop(@keys), '=', pop(@values), "\n";
2554 or how about sorted by key:
2556 foreach $key (sort(keys %ENV)) {
2557 print $key, '=', $ENV{$key}, "\n";
2560 The returned values are copies of the original keys in the hash, so
2561 modifying them will not affect the original hash. Compare L</values>.
2563 To sort a hash by value, you'll need to use a C<sort> function.
2564 Here's a descending numeric sort of a hash by its values:
2566 foreach $key (sort { $hash{$b} <=> $hash{$a} } keys %hash) {
2567 printf "%4d %s\n", $hash{$key}, $key;
2570 As an lvalue C<keys> allows you to increase the number of hash buckets
2571 allocated for the given hash. This can gain you a measure of efficiency if
2572 you know the hash is going to get big. (This is similar to pre-extending
2573 an array by assigning a larger number to $#array.) If you say
2577 then C<%hash> will have at least 200 buckets allocated for it--256 of them,
2578 in fact, since it rounds up to the next power of two. These
2579 buckets will be retained even if you do C<%hash = ()>, use C<undef
2580 %hash> if you want to free the storage while C<%hash> is still in scope.
2581 You can't shrink the number of buckets allocated for the hash using
2582 C<keys> in this way (but you needn't worry about doing this by accident,
2583 as trying has no effect). C<keys @array> in an lvalue context is a syntax
2586 See also C<each>, C<values> and C<sort>.
2588 =item kill SIGNAL, LIST
2591 Sends a signal to a list of processes. Returns the number of
2592 processes successfully signaled (which is not necessarily the
2593 same as the number actually killed).
2595 $cnt = kill 1, $child1, $child2;
2598 If SIGNAL is zero, no signal is sent to the process, but the kill(2)
2599 system call will check whether it's possible to send a signal to it (that
2600 means, to be brief, that the process is owned by the same user, or we are
2601 the super-user). This is a useful way to check that a child process is
2602 alive (even if only as a zombie) and hasn't changed its UID. See
2603 L<perlport> for notes on the portability of this construct.
2605 Unlike in the shell, if SIGNAL is negative, it kills
2606 process groups instead of processes. (On System V, a negative I<PROCESS>
2607 number will also kill process groups, but that's not portable.) That
2608 means you usually want to use positive not negative signals. You may also
2609 use a signal name in quotes.
2611 See L<perlipc/"Signals"> for more details.
2618 The C<last> command is like the C<break> statement in C (as used in
2619 loops); it immediately exits the loop in question. If the LABEL is
2620 omitted, the command refers to the innermost enclosing loop. The
2621 C<continue> block, if any, is not executed:
2623 LINE: while (<STDIN>) {
2624 last LINE if /^$/; # exit when done with header
2628 C<last> cannot be used to exit a block which returns a value such as
2629 C<eval {}>, C<sub {}> or C<do {}>, and should not be used to exit
2630 a grep() or map() operation.
2632 Note that a block by itself is semantically identical to a loop
2633 that executes once. Thus C<last> can be used to effect an early
2634 exit out of such a block.
2636 See also L</continue> for an illustration of how C<last>, C<next>, and
2644 Returns a lowercased version of EXPR. This is the internal function
2645 implementing the C<\L> escape in double-quoted strings. Respects
2646 current LC_CTYPE locale if C<use locale> in force. See L<perllocale>
2647 and L<perlunicode> for more details about locale and Unicode support.
2649 If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
2652 X<lcfirst> X<lowercase>
2656 Returns the value of EXPR with the first character lowercased. This
2657 is the internal function implementing the C<\l> escape in
2658 double-quoted strings. Respects current LC_CTYPE locale if C<use
2659 locale> in force. See L<perllocale> and L<perlunicode> for more
2660 details about locale and Unicode support.
2662 If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
2669 Returns the length in I<characters> of the value of EXPR. If EXPR is
2670 omitted, returns length of C<$_>. Note that this cannot be used on
2671 an entire array or hash to find out how many elements these have.
2672 For that, use C<scalar @array> and C<scalar keys %hash> respectively.
2674 Note the I<characters>: if the EXPR is in Unicode, you will get the
2675 number of characters, not the number of bytes. To get the length
2676 of the internal string in bytes, use C<bytes::length(EXPR)>, see
2677 L<bytes>. Note that the internal encoding is variable, and the number
2678 of bytes usually meaningless. To get the number of bytes that the
2679 string would have when encoded as UTF-8, use
2680 C<length(Encoding::encode_utf8(EXPR))>.
2682 =item link OLDFILE,NEWFILE
2685 Creates a new filename linked to the old filename. Returns true for
2686 success, false otherwise.
2688 =item listen SOCKET,QUEUESIZE
2691 Does the same thing that the listen system call does. Returns true if
2692 it succeeded, false otherwise. See the example in
2693 L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server Communication">.
2698 You really probably want to be using C<my> instead, because C<local> isn't
2699 what most people think of as "local". See
2700 L<perlsub/"Private Variables via my()"> for details.
2702 A local modifies the listed variables to be local to the enclosing
2703 block, file, or eval. If more than one value is listed, the list must
2704 be placed in parentheses. See L<perlsub/"Temporary Values via local()">
2705 for details, including issues with tied arrays and hashes.
2707 =item localtime EXPR
2708 X<localtime> X<ctime>
2712 Converts a time as returned by the time function to a 9-element list
2713 with the time analyzed for the local time zone. Typically used as
2717 ($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) =
2720 All list elements are numeric, and come straight out of the C `struct
2721 tm'. C<$sec>, C<$min>, and C<$hour> are the seconds, minutes, and hours
2722 of the specified time.
2724 C<$mday> is the day of the month, and C<$mon> is the month itself, in
2725 the range C<0..11> with 0 indicating January and 11 indicating December.
2726 This makes it easy to get a month name from a list:
2728 my @abbr = qw( Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec );
2729 print "$abbr[$mon] $mday";
2730 # $mon=9, $mday=18 gives "Oct 18"
2732 C<$year> is the number of years since 1900, not just the last two digits
2733 of the year. That is, C<$year> is C<123> in year 2023. The proper way
2734 to get a complete 4-digit year is simply:
2738 Otherwise you create non-Y2K-compliant programs--and you wouldn't want
2739 to do that, would you?
2741 To get the last two digits of the year (e.g., '01' in 2001) do:
2743 $year = sprintf("%02d", $year % 100);
2745 C<$wday> is the day of the week, with 0 indicating Sunday and 3 indicating
2746 Wednesday. C<$yday> is the day of the year, in the range C<0..364>
2747 (or C<0..365> in leap years.)
2749 C<$isdst> is true if the specified time occurs during Daylight Saving
2750 Time, false otherwise.
2752 If EXPR is omitted, C<localtime()> uses the current time (C<localtime(time)>).
2754 In scalar context, C<localtime()> returns the ctime(3) value:
2756 $now_string = localtime; # e.g., "Thu Oct 13 04:54:34 1994"
2758 This scalar value is B<not> locale dependent but is a Perl builtin. For GMT
2759 instead of local time use the L</gmtime> builtin. See also the
2760 C<Time::Local> module (to convert the second, minutes, hours, ... back to
2761 the integer value returned by time()), and the L<POSIX> module's strftime(3)
2762 and mktime(3) functions.
2764 To get somewhat similar but locale dependent date strings, set up your
2765 locale environment variables appropriately (please see L<perllocale>) and
2768 use POSIX qw(strftime);
2769 $now_string = strftime "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y", localtime;
2770 # or for GMT formatted appropriately for your locale:
2771 $now_string = strftime "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y", gmtime;
2773 Note that the C<%a> and C<%b>, the short forms of the day of the week
2774 and the month of the year, may not necessarily be three characters wide.
2776 See L<perlport/localtime> for portability concerns.
2778 The L<Time::gmtime> and L<Time::localtime> modules provides a convenient,
2779 by-name access mechanism to the gmtime() and localtime() functions,
2782 For a comprehensive date and time representation look at the
2783 L<DateTime> module on CPAN.
2788 This function places an advisory lock on a shared variable, or referenced
2789 object contained in I<THING> until the lock goes out of scope.
2791 lock() is a "weak keyword" : this means that if you've defined a function
2792 by this name (before any calls to it), that function will be called
2793 instead. (However, if you've said C<use threads>, lock() is always a
2794 keyword.) See L<threads>.
2797 X<log> X<logarithm> X<e> X<ln> X<base>
2801 Returns the natural logarithm (base I<e>) of EXPR. If EXPR is omitted,
2802 returns log of C<$_>. To get the log of another base, use basic algebra:
2803 The base-N log of a number is equal to the natural log of that number
2804 divided by the natural log of N. For example:
2808 return log($n)/log(10);
2811 See also L</exp> for the inverse operation.
2818 Does the same thing as the C<stat> function (including setting the
2819 special C<_> filehandle) but stats a symbolic link instead of the file
2820 the symbolic link points to. If symbolic links are unimplemented on
2821 your system, a normal C<stat> is done. For much more detailed
2822 information, please see the documentation for C<stat>.
2824 If EXPR is omitted, stats C<$_>.
2828 The match operator. See L<perlop>.
2830 =item map BLOCK LIST
2835 Evaluates the BLOCK or EXPR for each element of LIST (locally setting
2836 C<$_> to each element) and returns the list value composed of the
2837 results of each such evaluation. In scalar context, returns the
2838 total number of elements so generated. Evaluates BLOCK or EXPR in
2839 list context, so each element of LIST may produce zero, one, or
2840 more elements in the returned value.
2842 @chars = map(chr, @nums);
2844 translates a list of numbers to the corresponding characters. And
2846 %hash = map { get_a_key_for($_) => $_ } @array;
2848 is just a funny way to write
2852 $hash{get_a_key_for($_)} = $_;
2855 Note that C<$_> is an alias to the list value, so it can be used to
2856 modify the elements of the LIST. While this is useful and supported,
2857 it can cause bizarre results if the elements of LIST are not variables.
2858 Using a regular C<foreach> loop for this purpose would be clearer in
2859 most cases. See also L</grep> for an array composed of those items of
2860 the original list for which the BLOCK or EXPR evaluates to true.
2862 If C<$_> is lexical in the scope where the C<map> appears (because it has
2863 been declared with C<my $_>), then, in addition to being locally aliased to
2864 the list elements, C<$_> keeps being lexical inside the block; that is, it
2865 can't be seen from the outside, avoiding any potential side-effects.
2867 C<{> starts both hash references and blocks, so C<map { ...> could be either
2868 the start of map BLOCK LIST or map EXPR, LIST. Because perl doesn't look
2869 ahead for the closing C<}> it has to take a guess at which its dealing with
2870 based what it finds just after the C<{>. Usually it gets it right, but if it
2871 doesn't it won't realize something is wrong until it gets to the C<}> and
2872 encounters the missing (or unexpected) comma. The syntax error will be
2873 reported close to the C<}> but you'll need to change something near the C<{>
2874 such as using a unary C<+> to give perl some help:
2876 %hash = map { "\L$_", 1 } @array # perl guesses EXPR. wrong
2877 %hash = map { +"\L$_", 1 } @array # perl guesses BLOCK. right
2878 %hash = map { ("\L$_", 1) } @array # this also works
2879 %hash = map { lc($_), 1 } @array # as does this.
2880 %hash = map +( lc($_), 1 ), @array # this is EXPR and works!
2882 %hash = map ( lc($_), 1 ), @array # evaluates to (1, @array)
2884 or to force an anon hash constructor use C<+{>:
2886 @hashes = map +{ lc($_), 1 }, @array # EXPR, so needs , at end
2888 and you get list of anonymous hashes each with only 1 entry.
2890 =item mkdir FILENAME,MASK
2891 X<mkdir> X<md> X<directory, create>
2893 =item mkdir FILENAME
2897 Creates the directory specified by FILENAME, with permissions
2898 specified by MASK (as modified by C<umask>). If it succeeds it
2899 returns true, otherwise it returns false and sets C<$!> (errno).
2900 If omitted, MASK defaults to 0777. If omitted, FILENAME defaults
2903 In general, it is better to create directories with permissive MASK,
2904 and let the user modify that with their C<umask>, than it is to supply
2905 a restrictive MASK and give the user no way to be more permissive.
2906 The exceptions to this rule are when the file or directory should be
2907 kept private (mail files, for instance). The perlfunc(1) entry on
2908 C<umask> discusses the choice of MASK in more detail.
2910 Note that according to the POSIX 1003.1-1996 the FILENAME may have any
2911 number of trailing slashes. Some operating and filesystems do not get
2912 this right, so Perl automatically removes all trailing slashes to keep
2915 In order to recursively create a directory structure look at
2916 the C<mkpath> function of the L<File::Path> module.
2918 =item msgctl ID,CMD,ARG
2921 Calls the System V IPC function msgctl(2). You'll probably have to say
2925 first to get the correct constant definitions. If CMD is C<IPC_STAT>,
2926 then ARG must be a variable that will hold the returned C<msqid_ds>
2927 structure. Returns like C<ioctl>: the undefined value for error,
2928 C<"0 but true"> for zero, or the actual return value otherwise. See also
2929 L<perlipc/"SysV IPC">, C<IPC::SysV>, and C<IPC::Semaphore> documentation.
2931 =item msgget KEY,FLAGS
2934 Calls the System V IPC function msgget(2). Returns the message queue
2935 id, or the undefined value if there is an error. See also
2936 L<perlipc/"SysV IPC"> and C<IPC::SysV> and C<IPC::Msg> documentation.
2938 =item msgrcv ID,VAR,SIZE,TYPE,FLAGS
2941 Calls the System V IPC function msgrcv to receive a message from
2942 message queue ID into variable VAR with a maximum message size of
2943 SIZE. Note that when a message is received, the message type as a
2944 native long integer will be the first thing in VAR, followed by the
2945 actual message. This packing may be opened with C<unpack("l! a*")>.
2946 Taints the variable. Returns true if successful, or false if there is
2947 an error. See also L<perlipc/"SysV IPC">, C<IPC::SysV>, and
2948 C<IPC::SysV::Msg> documentation.
2950 =item msgsnd ID,MSG,FLAGS
2953 Calls the System V IPC function msgsnd to send the message MSG to the
2954 message queue ID. MSG must begin with the native long integer message
2955 type, and be followed by the length of the actual message, and finally
2956 the message itself. This kind of packing can be achieved with
2957 C<pack("l! a*", $type, $message)>. Returns true if successful,
2958 or false if there is an error. See also C<IPC::SysV>
2959 and C<IPC::SysV::Msg> documentation.
2966 =item my EXPR : ATTRS
2968 =item my TYPE EXPR : ATTRS
2970 A C<my> declares the listed variables to be local (lexically) to the
2971 enclosing block, file, or C<eval>. If more than one value is listed,
2972 the list must be placed in parentheses.
2974 The exact semantics and interface of TYPE and ATTRS are still
2975 evolving. TYPE is currently bound to the use of C<fields> pragma,
2976 and attributes are handled using the C<attributes> pragma, or starting
2977 from Perl 5.8.0 also via the C<Attribute::Handlers> module. See
2978 L<perlsub/"Private Variables via my()"> for details, and L<fields>,
2979 L<attributes>, and L<Attribute::Handlers>.
2986 The C<next> command is like the C<continue> statement in C; it starts
2987 the next iteration of the loop:
2989 LINE: while (<STDIN>) {
2990 next LINE if /^#/; # discard comments
2994 Note that if there were a C<continue> block on the above, it would get
2995 executed even on discarded lines. If the LABEL is omitted, the command
2996 refers to the innermost enclosing loop.
2998 C<next> cannot be used to exit a block which returns a value such as
2999 C<eval {}>, C<sub {}> or C<do {}>, and should not be used to exit
3000 a grep() or map() operation.
3002 Note that a block by itself is semantically identical to a loop
3003 that executes once. Thus C<next> will exit such a block early.
3005 See also L</continue> for an illustration of how C<last>, C<next>, and
3008 =item no Module VERSION LIST
3011 =item no Module VERSION
3013 =item no Module LIST
3019 See the C<use> function, of which C<no> is the opposite.
3022 X<oct> X<octal> X<hex> X<hexadecimal> X<binary> X<bin>
3026 Interprets EXPR as an octal string and returns the corresponding
3027 value. (If EXPR happens to start off with C<0x>, interprets it as a
3028 hex string. If EXPR starts off with C<0b>, it is interpreted as a
3029 binary string. Leading whitespace is ignored in all three cases.)
3030 The following will handle decimal, binary, octal, and hex in the standard
3033 $val = oct($val) if $val =~ /^0/;
3035 If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>. To go the other way (produce a number
3036 in octal), use sprintf() or printf():
3038 $perms = (stat("filename"))[2] & 07777;
3039 $oct_perms = sprintf "%lo", $perms;
3041 The oct() function is commonly used when a string such as C<644> needs
3042 to be converted into a file mode, for example. (Although perl will
3043 automatically convert strings into numbers as needed, this automatic
3044 conversion assumes base 10.)
3046 =item open FILEHANDLE,EXPR
3047 X<open> X<pipe> X<file, open> X<fopen>
3049 =item open FILEHANDLE,MODE,EXPR
3051 =item open FILEHANDLE,MODE,EXPR,LIST
3053 =item open FILEHANDLE,MODE,REFERENCE
3055 =item open FILEHANDLE
3057 Opens the file whose filename is given by EXPR, and associates it with
3060 (The following is a comprehensive reference to open(): for a gentler
3061 introduction you may consider L<perlopentut>.)
3063 If FILEHANDLE is an undefined scalar variable (or array or hash element)
3064 the variable is assigned a reference to a new anonymous filehandle,
3065 otherwise if FILEHANDLE is an expression, its value is used as the name of
3066 the real filehandle wanted. (This is considered a symbolic reference, so
3067 C<use strict 'refs'> should I<not> be in effect.)
3069 If EXPR is omitted, the scalar variable of the same name as the
3070 FILEHANDLE contains the filename. (Note that lexical variables--those
3071 declared with C<my>--will not work for this purpose; so if you're
3072 using C<my>, specify EXPR in your call to open.)
3074 If three or more arguments are specified then the mode of opening and
3075 the file name are separate. If MODE is C<< '<' >> or nothing, the file
3076 is opened for input. If MODE is C<< '>' >>, the file is truncated and
3077 opened for output, being created if necessary. If MODE is C<<< '>>' >>>,
3078 the file is opened for appending, again being created if necessary.
3080 You can put a C<'+'> in front of the C<< '>' >> or C<< '<' >> to
3081 indicate that you want both read and write access to the file; thus
3082 C<< '+<' >> is almost always preferred for read/write updates--the C<<
3083 '+>' >> mode would clobber the file first. You can't usually use
3084 either read-write mode for updating textfiles, since they have
3085 variable length records. See the B<-i> switch in L<perlrun> for a
3086 better approach. The file is created with permissions of C<0666>
3087 modified by the process' C<umask> value.
3089 These various prefixes correspond to the fopen(3) modes of C<'r'>,
3090 C<'r+'>, C<'w'>, C<'w+'>, C<'a'>, and C<'a+'>.
3092 In the 2-arguments (and 1-argument) form of the call the mode and
3093 filename should be concatenated (in this order), possibly separated by
3094 spaces. It is possible to omit the mode in these forms if the mode is
3097 If the filename begins with C<'|'>, the filename is interpreted as a
3098 command to which output is to be piped, and if the filename ends with a
3099 C<'|'>, the filename is interpreted as a command which pipes output to
3100 us. See L<perlipc/"Using open() for IPC">
3101 for more examples of this. (You are not allowed to C<open> to a command
3102 that pipes both in I<and> out, but see L<IPC::Open2>, L<IPC::Open3>,
3103 and L<perlipc/"Bidirectional Communication with Another Process">
3106 For three or more arguments if MODE is C<'|-'>, the filename is
3107 interpreted as a command to which output is to be piped, and if MODE
3108 is C<'-|'>, the filename is interpreted as a command which pipes
3109 output to us. In the 2-arguments (and 1-argument) form one should
3110 replace dash (C<'-'>) with the command.
3111 See L<perlipc/"Using open() for IPC"> for more examples of this.
3112 (You are not allowed to C<open> to a command that pipes both in I<and>
3113 out, but see L<IPC::Open2>, L<IPC::Open3>, and
3114 L<perlipc/"Bidirectional Communication"> for alternatives.)
3116 In the three-or-more argument form of pipe opens, if LIST is specified
3117 (extra arguments after the command name) then LIST becomes arguments
3118 to the command invoked if the platform supports it. The meaning of
3119 C<open> with more than three arguments for non-pipe modes is not yet
3120 specified. Experimental "layers" may give extra LIST arguments
3123 In the 2-arguments (and 1-argument) form opening C<'-'> opens STDIN
3124 and opening C<< '>-' >> opens STDOUT.
3126 You may use the three-argument form of open to specify IO "layers"
3127 (sometimes also referred to as "disciplines") to be applied to the handle
3128 that affect how the input and output are processed (see L<open> and
3129 L<PerlIO> for more details). For example
3131 open(FH, "<:encoding(UTF-8)", "file")
3133 will open the UTF-8 encoded file containing Unicode characters,
3134 see L<perluniintro>. Note that if layers are specified in the
3135 three-arg form then default layers stored in ${^OPEN} (see L<perlvar>;
3136 usually set by the B<open> pragma or the switch B<-CioD>) are ignored.
3138 Open returns nonzero upon success, the undefined value otherwise. If
3139 the C<open> involved a pipe, the return value happens to be the pid of
3142 If you're running Perl on a system that distinguishes between text
3143 files and binary files, then you should check out L</binmode> for tips
3144 for dealing with this. The key distinction between systems that need
3145 C<binmode> and those that don't is their text file formats. Systems
3146 like Unix, Mac OS, and Plan 9, which delimit lines with a single
3147 character, and which encode that character in C as C<"\n">, do not
3148 need C<binmode>. The rest need it.
3150 When opening a file, it's usually a bad idea to continue normal execution
3151 if the request failed, so C<open> is frequently used in connection with
3152 C<die>. Even if C<die> won't do what you want (say, in a CGI script,
3153 where you want to make a nicely formatted error message (but there are
3154 modules that can help with that problem)) you should always check
3155 the return value from opening a file. The infrequent exception is when
3156 working with an unopened filehandle is actually what you want to do.
3158 As a special case the 3-arg form with a read/write mode and the third
3159 argument being C<undef>:
3161 open(TMP, "+>", undef) or die ...
3163 opens a filehandle to an anonymous temporary file. Also using "+<"
3164 works for symmetry, but you really should consider writing something
3165 to the temporary file first. You will need to seek() to do the
3168 Since v5.8.0, perl has built using PerlIO by default. Unless you've
3169 changed this (i.e. Configure -Uuseperlio), you can open file handles to
3170 "in memory" files held in Perl scalars via:
3172 open($fh, '>', \$variable) || ..
3174 Though if you try to re-open C<STDOUT> or C<STDERR> as an "in memory"
3175 file, you have to close it first:
3178 open STDOUT, '>', \$variable or die "Can't open STDOUT: $!";
3183 open ARTICLE or die "Can't find article $ARTICLE: $!\n";
3184 while (<ARTICLE>) {...
3186 open(LOG, '>>/usr/spool/news/twitlog'); # (log is reserved)
3187 # if the open fails, output is discarded
3189 open(DBASE, '+<', 'dbase.mine') # open for update
3190 or die "Can't open 'dbase.mine' for update: $!";
3192 open(DBASE, '+<dbase.mine') # ditto
3193 or die "Can't open 'dbase.mine' for update: $!";
3195 open(ARTICLE, '-|', "caesar <$article") # decrypt article
3196 or die "Can't start caesar: $!";
3198 open(ARTICLE, "caesar <$article |") # ditto
3199 or die "Can't start caesar: $!";
3201 open(EXTRACT, "|sort >Tmp$$") # $$ is our process id
3202 or die "Can't start sort: $!";
3205 open(MEMORY,'>', \$var)
3206 or die "Can't open memory file: $!";
3207 print MEMORY "foo!\n"; # output will end up in $var
3209 # process argument list of files along with any includes
3211 foreach $file (@ARGV) {
3212 process($file, 'fh00');
3216 my($filename, $input) = @_;
3217 $input++; # this is a string increment
3218 unless (open($input, $filename)) {
3219 print STDERR "Can't open $filename: $!\n";
3224 while (<$input>) { # note use of indirection
3225 if (/^#include "(.*)"/) {
3226 process($1, $input);
3233 See L<perliol> for detailed info on PerlIO.
3235 You may also, in the Bourne shell tradition, specify an EXPR beginning
3236 with C<< '>&' >>, in which case the rest of the string is interpreted
3237 as the name of a filehandle (or file descriptor, if numeric) to be
3238 duped (as L<dup(2)>) and opened. You may use C<&> after C<< > >>,
3239 C<<< >> >>>, C<< < >>, C<< +> >>, C<<< +>> >>>, and C<< +< >>.
3240 The mode you specify should match the mode of the original filehandle.
3241 (Duping a filehandle does not take into account any existing contents
3242 of IO buffers.) If you use the 3-arg form then you can pass either a
3243 number, the name of a filehandle or the normal "reference to a glob".
3245 Here is a script that saves, redirects, and restores C<STDOUT> and
3246 C<STDERR> using various methods:
3249 open my $oldout, ">&STDOUT" or die "Can't dup STDOUT: $!";
3250 open OLDERR, ">&", \*STDERR or die "Can't dup STDERR: $!";
3252 open STDOUT, '>', "foo.out" or die "Can't redirect STDOUT: $!";
3253 open STDERR, ">&STDOUT" or die "Can't dup STDOUT: $!";
3255 select STDERR; $| = 1; # make unbuffered
3256 select STDOUT; $| = 1; # make unbuffered
3258 print STDOUT "stdout 1\n"; # this works for
3259 print STDERR "stderr 1\n"; # subprocesses too
3261 open STDOUT, ">&", $oldout or die "Can't dup \$oldout: $!";
3262 open STDERR, ">&OLDERR" or die "Can't dup OLDERR: $!";
3264 print STDOUT "stdout 2\n";
3265 print STDERR "stderr 2\n";
3267 If you specify C<< '<&=X' >>, where C<X> is a file descriptor number
3268 or a filehandle, then Perl will do an equivalent of C's C<fdopen> of
3269 that file descriptor (and not call L<dup(2)>); this is more
3270 parsimonious of file descriptors. For example:
3272 # open for input, reusing the fileno of $fd
3273 open(FILEHANDLE, "<&=$fd")
3277 open(FILEHANDLE, "<&=", $fd)
3281 # open for append, using the fileno of OLDFH
3282 open(FH, ">>&=", OLDFH)
3286 open(FH, ">>&=OLDFH")
3288 Being parsimonious on filehandles is also useful (besides being
3289 parsimonious) for example when something is dependent on file
3290 descriptors, like for example locking using flock(). If you do just
3291 C<< open(A, '>>&B') >>, the filehandle A will not have the same file
3292 descriptor as B, and therefore flock(A) will not flock(B), and vice
3293 versa. But with C<< open(A, '>>&=B') >> the filehandles will share
3294 the same file descriptor.
3296 Note that if you are using Perls older than 5.8.0, Perl will be using
3297 the standard C libraries' fdopen() to implement the "=" functionality.
3298 On many UNIX systems fdopen() fails when file descriptors exceed a
3299 certain value, typically 255. For Perls 5.8.0 and later, PerlIO is
3300 most often the default.
3302 You can see whether Perl has been compiled with PerlIO or not by
3303 running C<perl -V> and looking for C<useperlio=> line. If C<useperlio>
3304 is C<define>, you have PerlIO, otherwise you don't.
3306 If you open a pipe on the command C<'-'>, i.e., either C<'|-'> or C<'-|'>
3307 with 2-arguments (or 1-argument) form of open(), then
3308 there is an implicit fork done, and the return value of open is the pid
3309 of the child within the parent process, and C<0> within the child
3310 process. (Use C<defined($pid)> to determine whether the open was successful.)
3311 The filehandle behaves normally for the parent, but i/o to that
3312 filehandle is piped from/to the STDOUT/STDIN of the child process.
3313 In the child process the filehandle isn't opened--i/o happens from/to
3314 the new STDOUT or STDIN. Typically this is used like the normal
3315 piped open when you want to exercise more control over just how the
3316 pipe command gets executed, such as when you are running setuid, and
3317 don't want to have to scan shell commands for metacharacters.
3318 The following triples are more or less equivalent:
3320 open(FOO, "|tr '[a-z]' '[A-Z]'");
3321 open(FOO, '|-', "tr '[a-z]' '[A-Z]'");
3322 open(FOO, '|-') || exec 'tr', '[a-z]', '[A-Z]';
3323 open(FOO, '|-', "tr", '[a-z]', '[A-Z]');
3325 open(FOO, "cat -n '$file'|");
3326 open(FOO, '-|', "cat -n '$file'");
3327 open(FOO, '-|') || exec 'cat', '-n', $file;
3328 open(FOO, '-|', "cat", '-n', $file);
3330 The last example in each block shows the pipe as "list form", which is
3331 not yet supported on all platforms. A good rule of thumb is that if
3332 your platform has true C<fork()> (in other words, if your platform is
3333 UNIX) you can use the list form.
3335 See L<perlipc/"Safe Pipe Opens"> for more examples of this.
3337 Beginning with v5.6.0, Perl will attempt to flush all files opened for
3338 output before any operation that may do a fork, but this may not be
3339 supported on some platforms (see L<perlport>). To be safe, you may need
3340 to set C<$|> ($AUTOFLUSH in English) or call the C<autoflush()> method
3341 of C<IO::Handle> on any open handles.
3343 On systems that support a close-on-exec flag on files, the flag will
3344 be set for the newly opened file descriptor as determined by the value
3345 of $^F. See L<perlvar/$^F>.
3347 Closing any piped filehandle causes the parent process to wait for the
3348 child to finish, and returns the status value in C<$?> and
3349 C<${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}>.
3351 The filename passed to 2-argument (or 1-argument) form of open() will
3352 have leading and trailing whitespace deleted, and the normal
3353 redirection characters honored. This property, known as "magic open",
3354 can often be used to good effect. A user could specify a filename of
3355 F<"rsh cat file |">, or you could change certain filenames as needed:
3357 $filename =~ s/(.*\.gz)\s*$/gzip -dc < $1|/;
3358 open(FH, $filename) or die "Can't open $filename: $!";
3360 Use 3-argument form to open a file with arbitrary weird characters in it,
3362 open(FOO, '<', $file);
3364 otherwise it's necessary to protect any leading and trailing whitespace:
3366 $file =~ s#^(\s)#./$1#;
3367 open(FOO, "< $file\0");
3369 (this may not work on some bizarre filesystems). One should
3370 conscientiously choose between the I<magic> and 3-arguments form
3375 will allow the user to specify an argument of the form C<"rsh cat file |">,
3376 but will not work on a filename which happens to have a trailing space, while
3378 open IN, '<', $ARGV[0];
3380 will have exactly the opposite restrictions.
3382 If you want a "real" C C<open> (see L<open(2)> on your system), then you
3383 should use the C<sysopen> function, which involves no such magic (but
3384 may use subtly different filemodes than Perl open(), which is mapped
3385 to C fopen()). This is
3386 another way to protect your filenames from interpretation. For example:
3389 sysopen(HANDLE, $path, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL)
3390 or die "sysopen $path: $!";
3391 $oldfh = select(HANDLE); $| = 1; select($oldfh);
3392 print HANDLE "stuff $$\n";
3394 print "File contains: ", <HANDLE>;
3396 Using the constructor from the C<IO::Handle> package (or one of its
3397 subclasses, such as C<IO::File> or C<IO::Socket>), you can generate anonymous
3398 filehandles that have the scope of whatever variables hold references to
3399 them, and automatically close whenever and however you leave that scope:
3403 sub read_myfile_munged {
3405 my $handle = new IO::File;
3406 open($handle, "myfile") or die "myfile: $!";
3408 or return (); # Automatically closed here.
3409 mung $first or die "mung failed"; # Or here.
3410 return $first, <$handle> if $ALL; # Or here.
3414 See L</seek> for some details about mixing reading and writing.
3416 =item opendir DIRHANDLE,EXPR
3419 Opens a directory named EXPR for processing by C<readdir>, C<telldir>,
3420 C<seekdir>, C<rewinddir>, and C<closedir>. Returns true if successful.
3421 DIRHANDLE may be an expression whose value can be used as an indirect
3422 dirhandle, usually the real dirhandle name. If DIRHANDLE is an undefined
3423 scalar variable (or array or hash element), the variable is assigned a
3424 reference to a new anonymous dirhandle.
3425 DIRHANDLEs have their own namespace separate from FILEHANDLEs.
3432 Returns the numeric (the native 8-bit encoding, like ASCII or EBCDIC,
3433 or Unicode) value of the first character of EXPR. If EXPR is omitted,
3436 For the reverse, see L</chr>.
3437 See L<perlunicode> for more about Unicode.
3444 =item our EXPR : ATTRS
3446 =item our TYPE EXPR : ATTRS
3448 C<our> associates a simple name with a package variable in the current
3449 package for use within the current scope. When C<use strict 'vars'> is in
3450 effect, C<our> lets you use declared global variables without qualifying
3451 them with package names, within the lexical scope of the C<our> declaration.
3452 In this way C<our> differs from C<use vars>, which is package scoped.
3454 Unlike C<my>, which both allocates storage for a variable and associates
3455 a simple name with that storage for use within the current scope, C<our>
3456 associates a simple name with a package variable in the current package,
3457 for use within the current scope. In other words, C<our> has the same
3458 scoping rules as C<my>, but does not necessarily create a
3461 If more than one value is listed, the list must be placed
3467 An C<our> declaration declares a global variable that will be visible
3468 across its entire lexical scope, even across package boundaries. The
3469 package in which the variable is entered is determined at the point
3470 of the declaration, not at the point of use. This means the following
3474 our $bar; # declares $Foo::bar for rest of lexical scope
3478 print $bar; # prints 20, as it refers to $Foo::bar
3480 Multiple C<our> declarations with the same name in the same lexical
3481 scope are allowed if they are in different packages. If they happen
3482 to be in the same package, Perl will emit warnings if you have asked
3483 for them, just like multiple C<my> declarations. Unlike a second
3484 C<my> declaration, which will bind the name to a fresh variable, a
3485 second C<our> declaration in the same package, in the same scope, is
3490 our $bar; # declares $Foo::bar for rest of lexical scope
3494 our $bar = 30; # declares $Bar::bar for rest of lexical scope
3495 print $bar; # prints 30
3497 our $bar; # emits warning but has no other effect
3498 print $bar; # still prints 30
3500 An C<our> declaration may also have a list of attributes associated
3503 The exact semantics and interface of TYPE and ATTRS are still
3504 evolving. TYPE is currently bound to the use of C<fields> pragma,
3505 and attributes are handled using the C<attributes> pragma, or starting
3506 from Perl 5.8.0 also via the C<Attribute::Handlers> module. See
3507 L<perlsub/"Private Variables via my()"> for details, and L<fields>,
3508 L<attributes>, and L<Attribute::Handlers>.
3510 =item pack TEMPLATE,LIST
3513 Takes a LIST of values and converts it into a string using the rules
3514 given by the TEMPLATE. The resulting string is the concatenation of
3515 the converted values. Typically, each converted value looks
3516 like its machine-level representation. For example, on 32-bit machines
3517 an integer may be represented by a sequence of 4 bytes that will be
3518 converted to a sequence of 4 characters.
3520 The TEMPLATE is a sequence of characters that give the order and type
3521 of values, as follows:
3523 a A string with arbitrary binary data, will be null padded.
3524 A A text (ASCII) string, will be space padded.
3525 Z A null terminated (ASCIZ) string, will be null padded.
3527 b A bit string (ascending bit order inside each byte, like vec()).
3528 B A bit string (descending bit order inside each byte).
3529 h A hex string (low nybble first).
3530 H A hex string (high nybble first).
3532 c A signed char (8-bit) value.
3533 C An unsigned char (octet) value.
3534 W An unsigned char value (can be greater than 255).
3536 s A signed short (16-bit) value.
3537 S An unsigned short value.
3539 l A signed long (32-bit) value.
3540 L An unsigned long value.
3542 q A signed quad (64-bit) value.
3543 Q An unsigned quad value.
3544 (Quads are available only if your system supports 64-bit
3545 integer values _and_ if Perl has been compiled to support those.
3546 Causes a fatal error otherwise.)
3548 i A signed integer value.
3549 I A unsigned integer value.
3550 (This 'integer' is _at_least_ 32 bits wide. Its exact
3551 size depends on what a local C compiler calls 'int'.)
3553 n An unsigned short (16-bit) in "network" (big-endian) order.
3554 N An unsigned long (32-bit) in "network" (big-endian) order.
3555 v An unsigned short (16-bit) in "VAX" (little-endian) order.
3556 V An unsigned long (32-bit) in "VAX" (little-endian) order.
3558 j A Perl internal signed integer value (IV).
3559 J A Perl internal unsigned integer value (UV).
3561 f A single-precision float in the native format.
3562 d A double-precision float in the native format.
3564 F A Perl internal floating point value (NV) in the native format
3565 D A long double-precision float in the native format.
3566 (Long doubles are available only if your system supports long
3567 double values _and_ if Perl has been compiled to support those.
3568 Causes a fatal error otherwise.)
3570 p A pointer to a null-terminated string.
3571 P A pointer to a structure (fixed-length string).
3573 u A uuencoded string.
3574 U A Unicode character number. Encodes to a character in character mode
3575 and UTF-8 (or UTF-EBCDIC in EBCDIC platforms) in byte mode.
3577 w A BER compressed integer (not an ASN.1 BER, see perlpacktut for
3578 details). Its bytes represent an unsigned integer in base 128,
3579 most significant digit first, with as few digits as possible. Bit
3580 eight (the high bit) is set on each byte except the last.
3584 @ Null fill or truncate to absolute position, counted from the
3585 start of the innermost ()-group.
3586 . Null fill or truncate to absolute position specified by value.
3587 ( Start of a ()-group.
3589 One or more of the modifiers below may optionally follow some letters in the
3590 TEMPLATE (the second column lists the letters for which the modifier is
3593 ! sSlLiI Forces native (short, long, int) sizes instead
3594 of fixed (16-/32-bit) sizes.
3596 xX Make x and X act as alignment commands.
3598 nNvV Treat integers as signed instead of unsigned.
3600 @. Specify position as byte offset in the internal
3601 representation of the packed string. Efficient but
3604 > sSiIlLqQ Force big-endian byte-order on the type.
3605 jJfFdDpP (The "big end" touches the construct.)
3607 < sSiIlLqQ Force little-endian byte-order on the type.
3608 jJfFdDpP (The "little end" touches the construct.)
3610 The C<E<gt>> and C<E<lt>> modifiers can also be used on C<()>-groups,
3611 in which case they force a certain byte-order on all components of
3612 that group, including subgroups.
3614 The following rules apply:
3620 Each letter may optionally be followed by a number giving a repeat
3621 count. With all types except C<a>, C<A>, C<Z>, C<b>, C<B>, C<h>,
3622 C<H>, C<@>, C<.>, C<x>, C<X> and C<P> the pack function will gobble up
3623 that many values from the LIST. A C<*> for the repeat count means to
3624 use however many items are left, except for C<@>, C<x>, C<X>, where it
3625 is equivalent to C<0>, for <.> where it means relative to string start
3626 and C<u>, where it is equivalent to 1 (or 45, which is the same).
3627 A numeric repeat count may optionally be enclosed in brackets, as in
3628 C<pack 'C[80]', @arr>.
3630 One can replace the numeric repeat count by a template enclosed in brackets;
3631 then the packed length of this template in bytes is used as a count.
3632 For example, C<x[L]> skips a long (it skips the number of bytes in a long);
3633 the template C<$t X[$t] $t> unpack()s twice what $t unpacks.
3634 If the template in brackets contains alignment commands (such as C<x![d]>),
3635 its packed length is calculated as if the start of the template has the maximal
3638 When used with C<Z>, C<*> results in the addition of a trailing null
3639 byte (so the packed result will be one longer than the byte C<length>
3642 When used with C<@>, the repeat count represents an offset from the start
3643 of the innermost () group.
3645 When used with C<.>, the repeat count is used to determine the starting
3646 position from where the value offset is calculated. If the repeat count
3647 is 0, it's relative to the current position. If the repeat count is C<*>,
3648 the offset is relative to the start of the packed string. And if its an
3649 integer C<n> the offset is relative to the start of the n-th innermost
3650 () group (or the start of the string if C<n> is bigger then the group
3653 The repeat count for C<u> is interpreted as the maximal number of bytes
3654 to encode per line of output, with 0, 1 and 2 replaced by 45. The repeat
3655 count should not be more than 65.
3659 The C<a>, C<A>, and C<Z> types gobble just one value, but pack it as a
3660 string of length count, padding with nulls or spaces as necessary. When
3661 unpacking, C<A> strips trailing whitespace and nulls, C<Z> strips everything
3662 after the first null, and C<a> returns data verbatim.
3664 If the value-to-pack is too long, it is truncated. If too long and an
3665 explicit count is provided, C<Z> packs only C<$count-1> bytes, followed
3666 by a null byte. Thus C<Z> always packs a trailing null (except when the
3671 Likewise, the C<b> and C<B> fields pack a string that many bits long.
3672 Each character of the input field of pack() generates 1 bit of the result.
3673 Each result bit is based on the least-significant bit of the corresponding
3674 input character, i.e., on C<ord($char)%2>. In particular, characters C<"0">
3675 and C<"1"> generate bits 0 and 1, as do characters C<"\0"> and C<"\1">.
3677 Starting from the beginning of the input string of pack(), each 8-tuple
3678 of characters is converted to 1 character of output. With format C<b>
3679 the first character of the 8-tuple determines the least-significant bit of a
3680 character, and with format C<B> it determines the most-significant bit of
3683 If the length of the input string is not exactly divisible by 8, the
3684 remainder is packed as if the input string were padded by null characters
3685 at the end. Similarly, during unpack()ing the "extra" bits are ignored.
3687 If the input string of pack() is longer than needed, extra characters are
3688 ignored. A C<*> for the repeat count of pack() means to use all the
3689 characters of the input field. On unpack()ing the bits are converted to a
3690 string of C<"0">s and C<"1">s.
3694 The C<h> and C<H> fields pack a string that many nybbles (4-bit groups,
3695 representable as hexadecimal digits, 0-9a-f) long.
3697 Each character of the input field of pack() generates 4 bits of the result.
3698 For non-alphabetical characters the result is based on the 4 least-significant
3699 bits of the input character, i.e., on C<ord($char)%16>. In particular,
3700 characters C<"0"> and C<"1"> generate nybbles 0 and 1, as do bytes
3701 C<"\0"> and C<"\1">. For characters C<"a".."f"> and C<"A".."F"> the result
3702 is compatible with the usual hexadecimal digits, so that C<"a"> and
3703 C<"A"> both generate the nybble C<0xa==10>. The result for characters
3704 C<"g".."z"> and C<"G".."Z"> is not well-defined.
3706 Starting from the beginning of the input string of pack(), each pair
3707 of characters is converted to 1 character of output. With format C<h> the
3708 first character of the pair determines the least-significant nybble of the
3709 output character, and with format C<H> it determines the most-significant
3712 If the length of the input string is not even, it behaves as if padded
3713 by a null character at the end. Similarly, during unpack()ing the "extra"
3714 nybbles are ignored.
3716 If the input string of pack() is longer than needed, extra characters are
3718 A C<*> for the repeat count of pack() means to use all the characters of
3719 the input field. On unpack()ing the nybbles are converted to a string
3720 of hexadecimal digits.
3724 The C<p> type packs a pointer to a null-terminated string. You are
3725 responsible for ensuring the string is not a temporary value (which can
3726 potentially get deallocated before you get around to using the packed result).
3727 The C<P> type packs a pointer to a structure of the size indicated by the
3728 length. A NULL pointer is created if the corresponding value for C<p> or
3729 C<P> is C<undef>, similarly for unpack().
3731 If your system has a strange pointer size (i.e. a pointer is neither as
3732 big as an int nor as big as a long), it may not be possible to pack or
3733 unpack pointers in big- or little-endian byte order. Attempting to do
3734 so will result in a fatal error.
3738 The C</> template character allows packing and unpacking of a sequence of
3739 items where the packed structure contains a packed item count followed by
3740 the packed items themselves.
3742 For C<pack> you write I<length-item>C</>I<sequence-item> and the
3743 I<length-item> describes how the length value is packed. The ones likely
3744 to be of most use are integer-packing ones like C<n> (for Java strings),
3745 C<w> (for ASN.1 or SNMP) and C<N> (for Sun XDR).
3747 For C<pack>, the I<sequence-item> may have a repeat count, in which case
3748 the minimum of that and the number of available items is used as argument
3749 for the I<length-item>. If it has no repeat count or uses a '*', the number
3750 of available items is used.
3752 For C<unpack> an internal stack of integer arguments unpacked so far is
3753 used. You write C</>I<sequence-item> and the repeat count is obtained by
3754 popping off the last element from the stack. The I<sequence-item> must not
3755 have a repeat count.
3757 If the I<sequence-item> refers to a string type (C<"A">, C<"a"> or C<"Z">),
3758 the I<length-item> is a string length, not a number of strings. If there is
3759 an explicit repeat count for pack, the packed string will be adjusted to that
3762 unpack 'W/a', "\04Gurusamy"; gives ('Guru')
3763 unpack 'a3/A A*', '007 Bond J '; gives (' Bond', 'J')
3764 unpack 'a3 x2 /A A*', '007: Bond, J.'; gives ('Bond, J', '.')
3765 pack 'n/a* w/a','hello,','world'; gives "\000\006hello,\005world"
3766 pack 'a/W2', ord('a') .. ord('z'); gives '2ab'
3768 The I<length-item> is not returned explicitly from C<unpack>.
3770 Adding a count to the I<length-item> letter is unlikely to do anything
3771 useful, unless that letter is C<A>, C<a> or C<Z>. Packing with a
3772 I<length-item> of C<a> or C<Z> may introduce C<"\000"> characters,
3773 which Perl does not regard as legal in numeric strings.
3777 The integer types C<s>, C<S>, C<l>, and C<L> may be
3778 followed by a C<!> modifier to signify native shorts or
3779 longs--as you can see from above for example a bare C<l> does mean
3780 exactly 32 bits, the native C<long> (as seen by the local C compiler)
3781 may be larger. This is an issue mainly in 64-bit platforms. You can
3782 see whether using C<!> makes any difference by
3784 print length(pack("s")), " ", length(pack("s!")), "\n";
3785 print length(pack("l")), " ", length(pack("l!")), "\n";
3787 C<i!> and C<I!> also work but only because of completeness;
3788 they are identical to C<i> and C<I>.
3790 The actual sizes (in bytes) of native shorts, ints, longs, and long
3791 longs on the platform where Perl was built are also available via
3795 print $Config{shortsize}, "\n";
3796 print $Config{intsize}, "\n";
3797 print $Config{longsize}, "\n";
3798 print $Config{longlongsize}, "\n";
3800 (The C<$Config{longlongsize}> will be undefined if your system does
3801 not support long longs.)
3805 The integer formats C<s>, C<S>, C<i>, C<I>, C<l>, C<L>, C<j>, and C<J>
3806 are inherently non-portable between processors and operating systems
3807 because they obey the native byteorder and endianness. For example a
3808 4-byte integer 0x12345678 (305419896 decimal) would be ordered natively
3809 (arranged in and handled by the CPU registers) into bytes as
3811 0x12 0x34 0x56 0x78 # big-endian
3812 0x78 0x56 0x34 0x12 # little-endian
3814 Basically, the Intel and VAX CPUs are little-endian, while everybody
3815 else, for example Motorola m68k/88k, PPC, Sparc, HP PA, Power, and
3816 Cray are big-endian. Alpha and MIPS can be either: Digital/Compaq
3817 used/uses them in little-endian mode; SGI/Cray uses them in big-endian
3820 The names `big-endian' and `little-endian' are comic references to
3821 the classic "Gulliver's Travels" (via the paper "On Holy Wars and a
3822 Plea for Peace" by Danny Cohen, USC/ISI IEN 137, April 1, 1980) and
3823 the egg-eating habits of the Lilliputians.
3825 Some systems may have even weirder byte orders such as
3830 You can see your system's preference with
3832 print join(" ", map { sprintf "%#02x", $_ }
3833 unpack("W*",pack("L",0x12345678))), "\n";
3835 The byteorder on the platform where Perl was built is also available
3839 print $Config{byteorder}, "\n";
3841 Byteorders C<'1234'> and C<'12345678'> are little-endian, C<'4321'>
3842 and C<'87654321'> are big-endian.
3844 If you want portable packed integers you can either use the formats
3845 C<n>, C<N>, C<v>, and C<V>, or you can use the C<E<gt>> and C<E<lt>>
3846 modifiers. These modifiers are only available as of perl 5.9.2.
3847 See also L<perlport>.
3851 All integer and floating point formats as well as C<p> and C<P> and
3852 C<()>-groups may be followed by the C<E<gt>> or C<E<lt>> modifiers
3853 to force big- or little- endian byte-order, respectively.
3854 This is especially useful, since C<n>, C<N>, C<v> and C<V> don't cover
3855 signed integers, 64-bit integers and floating point values. However,
3856 there are some things to keep in mind.
3858 Exchanging signed integers between different platforms only works
3859 if all platforms store them in the same format. Most platforms store
3860 signed integers in two's complement, so usually this is not an issue.
3862 The C<E<gt>> or C<E<lt>> modifiers can only be used on floating point
3863 formats on big- or little-endian machines. Otherwise, attempting to
3864 do so will result in a fatal error.
3866 Forcing big- or little-endian byte-order on floating point values for
3867 data exchange can only work if all platforms are using the same
3868 binary representation (e.g. IEEE floating point format). Even if all
3869 platforms are using IEEE, there may be subtle differences. Being able
3870 to use C<E<gt>> or C<E<lt>> on floating point values can be very useful,
3871 but also very dangerous if you don't know exactly what you're doing.
3872 It is definitely not a general way to portably store floating point
3875 When using C<E<gt>> or C<E<lt>> on an C<()>-group, this will affect
3876 all types inside the group that accept the byte-order modifiers,
3877 including all subgroups. It will silently be ignored for all other
3878 types. You are not allowed to override the byte-order within a group
3879 that already has a byte-order modifier suffix.
3883 Real numbers (floats and doubles) are in the native machine format only;
3884 due to the multiplicity of floating formats around, and the lack of a
3885 standard "network" representation, no facility for interchange has been
3886 made. This means that packed floating point data written on one machine
3887 may not be readable on another - even if both use IEEE floating point
3888 arithmetic (as the endian-ness of the memory representation is not part
3889 of the IEEE spec). See also L<perlport>.
3891 If you know exactly what you're doing, you can use the C<E<gt>> or C<E<lt>>
3892 modifiers to force big- or little-endian byte-order on floating point values.
3894 Note that Perl uses doubles (or long doubles, if configured) internally for
3895 all numeric calculation, and converting from double into float and thence back
3896 to double again will lose precision (i.e., C<unpack("f", pack("f", $foo)>)
3897 will not in general equal $foo).
3901 Pack and unpack can operate in two modes, character mode (C<C0> mode) where
3902 the packed string is processed per character and UTF-8 mode (C<U0> mode)
3903 where the packed string is processed in its UTF-8-encoded Unicode form on
3904 a byte by byte basis. Character mode is the default unless the format string
3905 starts with an C<U>. You can switch mode at any moment with an explicit
3906 C<C0> or C<U0> in the format. A mode is in effect until the next mode switch
3907 or until the end of the ()-group in which it was entered.
3911 You must yourself do any alignment or padding by inserting for example
3912 enough C<'x'>es while packing. There is no way to pack() and unpack()
3913 could know where the characters are going to or coming from. Therefore
3914 C<pack> (and C<unpack>) handle their output and input as flat
3915 sequences of characters.
3919 A ()-group is a sub-TEMPLATE enclosed in parentheses. A group may
3920 take a repeat count, both as postfix, and for unpack() also via the C</>
3921 template character. Within each repetition of a group, positioning with
3922 C<@> starts again at 0. Therefore, the result of
3924 pack( '@1A((@2A)@3A)', 'a', 'b', 'c' )
3926 is the string "\0a\0\0bc".
3930 C<x> and C<X> accept C<!> modifier. In this case they act as
3931 alignment commands: they jump forward/back to the closest position
3932 aligned at a multiple of C<count> characters. For example, to pack() or
3933 unpack() C's C<struct {char c; double d; char cc[2]}> one may need to
3934 use the template C<W x![d] d W[2]>; this assumes that doubles must be
3935 aligned on the double's size.
3937 For alignment commands C<count> of 0 is equivalent to C<count> of 1;
3938 both result in no-ops.
3942 C<n>, C<N>, C<v> and C<V> accept the C<!> modifier. In this case they
3943 will represent signed 16-/32-bit integers in big-/little-endian order.
3944 This is only portable if all platforms sharing the packed data use the
3945 same binary representation for signed integers (e.g. all platforms are
3946 using two's complement representation).
3950 A comment in a TEMPLATE starts with C<#> and goes to the end of line.
3951 White space may be used to separate pack codes from each other, but
3952 modifiers and a repeat count must follow immediately.
3956 If TEMPLATE requires more arguments to pack() than actually given, pack()
3957 assumes additional C<""> arguments. If TEMPLATE requires fewer arguments
3958 to pack() than actually given, extra arguments are ignored.
3964 $foo = pack("WWWW",65,66,67,68);
3966 $foo = pack("W4",65,66,67,68);
3968 $foo = pack("W4",0x24b6,0x24b7,0x24b8,0x24b9);
3969 # same thing with Unicode circled letters.
3970 $foo = pack("U4",0x24b6,0x24b7,0x24b8,0x24b9);
3971 # same thing with Unicode circled letters. You don't get the UTF-8
3972 # bytes because the U at the start of the format caused a switch to
3973 # U0-mode, so the UTF-8 bytes get joined into characters
3974 $foo = pack("C0U4",0x24b6,0x24b7,0x24b8,0x24b9);
3975 # foo eq "\xe2\x92\xb6\xe2\x92\xb7\xe2\x92\xb8\xe2\x92\xb9"
3976 # This is the UTF-8 encoding of the string in the previous example
3978 $foo = pack("ccxxcc",65,66,67,68);
3981 # note: the above examples featuring "W" and "c" are true
3982 # only on ASCII and ASCII-derived systems such as ISO Latin 1
3983 # and UTF-8. In EBCDIC the first example would be
3984 # $foo = pack("WWWW",193,194,195,196);
3986 $foo = pack("s2",1,2);
3987 # "\1\0\2\0" on little-endian
3988 # "\0\1\0\2" on big-endian
3990 $foo = pack("a4","abcd","x","y","z");
3993 $foo = pack("aaaa","abcd","x","y","z");
3996 $foo = pack("a14","abcdefg");
3997 # "abcdefg\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"
3999 $foo = pack("i9pl", gmtime);
4000 # a real struct tm (on my system anyway)
4002 $utmp_template = "Z8 Z8 Z16 L";
4003 $utmp = pack($utmp_template, @utmp1);
4004 # a struct utmp (BSDish)
4006 @utmp2 = unpack($utmp_template, $utmp);
4007 # "@utmp1" eq "@utmp2"
4010 unpack("N", pack("B32", substr("0" x 32 . shift, -32)));
4013 $foo = pack('sx2l', 12, 34);
4014 # short 12, two zero bytes padding, long 34
4015 $bar = pack('s@4l', 12, 34);
4016 # short 12, zero fill to position 4, long 34
4018 $baz = pack('s.l', 12, 4, 34);
4019 # short 12, zero fill to position 4, long 34
4021 $foo = pack('nN', 42, 4711);
4022 # pack big-endian 16- and 32-bit unsigned integers
4023 $foo = pack('S>L>', 42, 4711);
4025 $foo = pack('s<l<', -42, 4711);
4026 # pack little-endian 16- and 32-bit signed integers
4027 $foo = pack('(sl)<', -42, 4711);
4030 The same template may generally also be used in unpack().
4032 =item package NAMESPACE
4033 X<package> X<module> X<namespace>
4037 Declares the compilation unit as being in the given namespace. The scope
4038 of the package declaration is from the declaration itself through the end
4039 of the enclosing block, file, or eval (the same as the C<my> operator).
4040 All further unqualified dynamic identifiers will be in this namespace.
4041 A package statement affects only dynamic variables--including those
4042 you've used C<local> on--but I<not> lexical variables, which are created
4043 with C<my>. Typically it would be the first declaration in a file to
4044 be included by the C<require> or C<use> operator. You can switch into a
4045 package in more than one place; it merely influences which symbol table
4046 is used by the compiler for the rest of that block. You can refer to
4047 variables and filehandles in other packages by prefixing the identifier
4048 with the package name and a double colon: C<$Package::Variable>.
4049 If the package name is null, the C<main> package as assumed. That is,
4050 C<$::sail> is equivalent to C<$main::sail> (as well as to C<$main'sail>,
4051 still seen in older code).
4053 If NAMESPACE is omitted, then there is no current package, and all
4054 identifiers must be fully qualified or lexicals. However, you are
4055 strongly advised not to make use of this feature. Its use can cause
4056 unexpected behaviour, even crashing some versions of Perl. It is
4057 deprecated, and will be removed from a future release.
4059 See L<perlmod/"Packages"> for more information about packages, modules,
4060 and classes. See L<perlsub> for other scoping issues.
4062 =item pipe READHANDLE,WRITEHANDLE
4065 Opens a pair of connected pipes like the corresponding system call.
4066 Note that if you set up a loop of piped processes, deadlock can occur
4067 unless you are very careful. In addition, note that Perl's pipes use
4068 IO buffering, so you may need to set C<$|> to flush your WRITEHANDLE
4069 after each command, depending on the application.
4071 See L<IPC::Open2>, L<IPC::Open3>, and L<perlipc/"Bidirectional Communication">
4072 for examples of such things.
4074 On systems that support a close-on-exec flag on files, the flag will be set
4075 for the newly opened file descriptors as determined by the value of $^F.
4083 Pops and returns the last value of the array, shortening the array by
4086 If there are no elements in the array, returns the undefined value
4087 (although this may happen at other times as well). If ARRAY is
4088 omitted, pops the C<@ARGV> array in the main program, and the C<@_>
4089 array in subroutines, just like C<shift>.
4092 X<pos> X<match, position>
4096 Returns the offset of where the last C<m//g> search left off for the variable
4097 in question (C<$_> is used when the variable is not specified). Note that
4098 0 is a valid match offset. C<undef> indicates that the search position
4099 is reset (usually due to match failure, but can also be because no match has
4100 yet been performed on the scalar). C<pos> directly accesses the location used
4101 by the regexp engine to store the offset, so assigning to C<pos> will change
4102 that offset, and so will also influence the C<\G> zero-width assertion in
4103 regular expressions. Because a failed C<m//gc> match doesn't reset the offset,
4104 the return from C<pos> won't change either in this case. See L<perlre> and
4107 =item print FILEHANDLE LIST
4114 Prints a string or a list of strings. Returns true if successful.
4115 FILEHANDLE may be a scalar variable name, in which case the variable
4116 contains the name of or a reference to the filehandle, thus introducing
4117 one level of indirection. (NOTE: If FILEHANDLE is a variable and
4118 the next token is a term, it may be misinterpreted as an operator
4119 unless you interpose a C<+> or put parentheses around the arguments.)
4120 If FILEHANDLE is omitted, prints by default to standard output (or
4121 to the last selected output channel--see L</select>). If LIST is
4122 also omitted, prints C<$_> to the currently selected output channel.
4123 To set the default output channel to something other than STDOUT
4124 use the select operation. The current value of C<$,> (if any) is
4125 printed between each LIST item. The current value of C<$\> (if
4126 any) is printed after the entire LIST has been printed. Because
4127 print takes a LIST, anything in the LIST is evaluated in list
4128 context, and any subroutine that you call will have one or more of
4129 its expressions evaluated in list context. Also be careful not to
4130 follow the print keyword with a left parenthesis unless you want
4131 the corresponding right parenthesis to terminate the arguments to
4132 the print--interpose a C<+> or put parentheses around all the
4135 Note that if you're storing FILEHANDLEs in an array, or if you're using
4136 any other expression more complex than a scalar variable to retrieve it,
4137 you will have to use a block returning the filehandle value instead:
4139 print { $files[$i] } "stuff\n";
4140 print { $OK ? STDOUT : STDERR } "stuff\n";
4142 =item printf FILEHANDLE FORMAT, LIST
4145 =item printf FORMAT, LIST
4147 Equivalent to C<print FILEHANDLE sprintf(FORMAT, LIST)>, except that C<$\>
4148 (the output record separator) is not appended. The first argument
4149 of the list will be interpreted as the C<printf> format. See C<sprintf>
4150 for an explanation of the format argument. If C<use locale> is in effect,
4151 and POSIX::setlocale() has been called, the character used for the decimal
4152 separator in formatted floating point numbers is affected by the LC_NUMERIC
4153 locale. See L<perllocale> and L<POSIX>.
4155 Don't fall into the trap of using a C<printf> when a simple
4156 C<print> would do. The C<print> is more efficient and less
4159 =item prototype FUNCTION
4162 Returns the prototype of a function as a string (or C<undef> if the
4163 function has no prototype). FUNCTION is a reference to, or the name of,
4164 the function whose prototype you want to retrieve.
4166 If FUNCTION is a string starting with C<CORE::>, the rest is taken as a
4167 name for Perl builtin. If the builtin is not I<overridable> (such as
4168 C<qw//>) or if its arguments cannot be adequately expressed by a prototype
4169 (such as C<system>), prototype() returns C<undef>, because the builtin
4170 does not really behave like a Perl function. Otherwise, the string
4171 describing the equivalent prototype is returned.
4173 =item push ARRAY,LIST
4176 Treats ARRAY as a stack, and pushes the values of LIST
4177 onto the end of ARRAY. The length of ARRAY increases by the length of
4178 LIST. Has the same effect as
4181 $ARRAY[++$#ARRAY] = $value;
4184 but is more efficient. Returns the number of elements in the array following
4185 the completed C<push>.
4197 Generalized quotes. See L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
4199 =item quotemeta EXPR
4200 X<quotemeta> X<metacharacter>
4204 Returns the value of EXPR with all non-"word"
4205 characters backslashed. (That is, all characters not matching
4206 C</[A-Za-z_0-9]/> will be preceded by a backslash in the
4207 returned string, regardless of any locale settings.)
4208 This is the internal function implementing
4209 the C<\Q> escape in double-quoted strings.
4211 If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
4218 Returns a random fractional number greater than or equal to C<0> and less
4219 than the value of EXPR. (EXPR should be positive.) If EXPR is
4220 omitted, the value C<1> is used. Currently EXPR with the value C<0> is
4221 also special-cased as C<1> - this has not been documented before perl 5.8.0
4222 and is subject to change in future versions of perl. Automatically calls
4223 C<srand> unless C<srand> has already been called. See also C<srand>.
4225 Apply C<int()> to the value returned by C<rand()> if you want random
4226 integers instead of random fractional numbers. For example,
4230 returns a random integer between C<0> and C<9>, inclusive.
4232 (Note: If your rand function consistently returns numbers that are too
4233 large or too small, then your version of Perl was probably compiled
4234 with the wrong number of RANDBITS.)
4236 =item read FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH,OFFSET
4237 X<read> X<file, read>
4239 =item read FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH
4241 Attempts to read LENGTH I<characters> of data into variable SCALAR
4242 from the specified FILEHANDLE. Returns the number of characters
4243 actually read, C<0> at end of file, or undef if there was an error (in
4244 the latter case C<$!> is also set). SCALAR will be grown or shrunk
4245 so that the last character actually read is the last character of the
4246 scalar after the read.
4248 An OFFSET may be specified to place the read data at some place in the
4249 string other than the beginning. A negative OFFSET specifies
4250 placement at that many characters counting backwards from the end of
4251 the string. A positive OFFSET greater than the length of SCALAR
4252 results in the string being padded to the required size with C<"\0">
4253 bytes before the result of the read is appended.
4255 The call is actually implemented in terms of either Perl's or system's
4256 fread() call. To get a true read(2) system call, see C<sysread>.
4258 Note the I<characters>: depending on the status of the filehandle,
4259 either (8-bit) bytes or characters are read. By default all
4260 filehandles operate on bytes, but for example if the filehandle has
4261 been opened with the C<:utf8> I/O layer (see L</open>, and the C<open>
4262 pragma, L<open>), the I/O will operate on UTF-8 encoded Unicode
4263 characters, not bytes. Similarly for the C<:encoding> pragma:
4264 in that case pretty much any characters can be read.
4266 =item readdir DIRHANDLE
4269 Returns the next directory entry for a directory opened by C<opendir>.
4270 If used in list context, returns all the rest of the entries in the
4271 directory. If there are no more entries, returns an undefined value in
4272 scalar context or a null list in list context.
4274 If you're planning to filetest the return values out of a C<readdir>, you'd
4275 better prepend the directory in question. Otherwise, because we didn't
4276 C<chdir> there, it would have been testing the wrong file.
4278 opendir(DIR, $some_dir) || die "can't opendir $some_dir: $!";
4279 @dots = grep { /^\./ && -f "$some_dir/$_" } readdir(DIR);
4285 X<readline> X<gets> X<fgets>
4287 Reads from the filehandle whose typeglob is contained in EXPR (or from
4288 *ARGV if EXPR is not provided). In scalar context, each call reads and
4289 returns the next line, until end-of-file is reached, whereupon the
4290 subsequent call returns undef. In list context, reads until end-of-file
4291 is reached and returns a list of lines. Note that the notion of "line"
4292 used here is however you may have defined it with C<$/> or
4293 C<$INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR>). See L<perlvar/"$/">.
4295 When C<$/> is set to C<undef>, when readline() is in scalar
4296 context (i.e. file slurp mode), and when an empty file is read, it
4297 returns C<''> the first time, followed by C<undef> subsequently.
4299 This is the internal function implementing the C<< <EXPR> >>
4300 operator, but you can use it directly. The C<< <EXPR> >>
4301 operator is discussed in more detail in L<perlop/"I/O Operators">.
4304 $line = readline(*STDIN); # same thing
4306 If readline encounters an operating system error, C<$!> will be set with the
4307 corresponding error message. It can be helpful to check C<$!> when you are
4308 reading from filehandles you don't trust, such as a tty or a socket. The
4309 following example uses the operator form of C<readline>, and takes the necessary
4310 steps to ensure that C<readline> was successful.
4314 unless (defined( $line = <> )) {
4326 Returns the value of a symbolic link, if symbolic links are
4327 implemented. If not, gives a fatal error. If there is some system
4328 error, returns the undefined value and sets C<$!> (errno). If EXPR is
4329 omitted, uses C<$_>.
4336 EXPR is executed as a system command.
4337 The collected standard output of the command is returned.
4338 In scalar context, it comes back as a single (potentially
4339 multi-line) string. In list context, returns a list of lines
4340 (however you've defined lines with C<$/> or C<$INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR>).
4341 This is the internal function implementing the C<qx/EXPR/>
4342 operator, but you can use it directly. The C<qx/EXPR/>
4343 operator is discussed in more detail in L<perlop/"I/O Operators">.
4344 If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
4346 =item recv SOCKET,SCALAR,LENGTH,FLAGS
4349 Receives a message on a socket. Attempts to receive LENGTH characters
4350 of data into variable SCALAR from the specified SOCKET filehandle.
4351 SCALAR will be grown or shrunk to the length actually read. Takes the
4352 same flags as the system call of the same name. Returns the address
4353 of the sender if SOCKET's protocol supports this; returns an empty
4354 string otherwise. If there's an error, returns the undefined value.
4355 This call is actually implemented in terms of recvfrom(2) system call.
4356 See L<perlipc/"UDP: Message Passing"> for examples.
4358 Note the I<characters>: depending on the status of the socket, either
4359 (8-bit) bytes or characters are received. By default all sockets
4360 operate on bytes, but for example if the socket has been changed using
4361 binmode() to operate with the C<:encoding(utf8)> I/O layer (see the
4362 C<open> pragma, L<open>), the I/O will operate on UTF-8 encoded Unicode
4363 characters, not bytes. Similarly for the C<:encoding> pragma: in that
4364 case pretty much any characters can be read.
4371 The C<redo> command restarts the loop block without evaluating the
4372 conditional again. The C<continue> block, if any, is not executed. If
4373 the LABEL is omitted, the command refers to the innermost enclosing
4374 loop. Programs that want to lie to themselves about what was just input
4375 normally use this command:
4377 # a simpleminded Pascal comment stripper
4378 # (warning: assumes no { or } in strings)
4379 LINE: while (<STDIN>) {
4380 while (s|({.*}.*){.*}|$1 |) {}
4385 if (/}/) { # end of comment?
4394 C<redo> cannot be used to retry a block which returns a value such as
4395 C<eval {}>, C<sub {}> or C<do {}>, and should not be used to exit
4396 a grep() or map() operation.
4398 Note that a block by itself is semantically identical to a loop
4399 that executes once. Thus C<redo> inside such a block will effectively
4400 turn it into a looping construct.
4402 See also L</continue> for an illustration of how C<last>, C<next>, and
4410 Returns a non-empty string if EXPR is a reference, the empty
4411 string otherwise. If EXPR
4412 is not specified, C<$_> will be used. The value returned depends on the
4413 type of thing the reference is a reference to.
4414 Builtin types include:
4428 If the referenced object has been blessed into a package, then that package
4429 name is returned instead. You can think of C<ref> as a C<typeof> operator.
4431 if (ref($r) eq "HASH") {
4432 print "r is a reference to a hash.\n";
4435 print "r is not a reference at all.\n";
4438 The return value C<LVALUE> indicates a reference to an lvalue that is not
4439 a variable. You get this from taking the reference of function calls like
4440 C<pos()> or C<substr()>. C<VSTRING> is returned if the reference points
4441 to a L<version string|perldata/"Version Strings">.
4443 The result C<Regexp> indicates that the argument is a regular expression
4444 resulting from C<qr//>.
4446 See also L<perlref>.
4448 =item rename OLDNAME,NEWNAME
4449 X<rename> X<move> X<mv> X<ren>
4451 Changes the name of a file; an existing file NEWNAME will be
4452 clobbered. Returns true for success, false otherwise.
4454 Behavior of this function varies wildly depending on your system
4455 implementation. For example, it will usually not work across file system
4456 boundaries, even though the system I<mv> command sometimes compensates
4457 for this. Other restrictions include whether it works on directories,
4458 open files, or pre-existing files. Check L<perlport> and either the
4459 rename(2) manpage or equivalent system documentation for details.
4461 For a platform independent C<move> function look at the L<File::Copy>
4464 =item require VERSION
4471 Demands a version of Perl specified by VERSION, or demands some semantics
4472 specified by EXPR or by C<$_> if EXPR is not supplied.
4474 VERSION may be either a numeric argument such as 5.006, which will be
4475 compared to C<$]>, or a literal of the form v5.6.1, which will be compared
4476 to C<$^V> (aka $PERL_VERSION). A fatal error is produced at run time if
4477 VERSION is greater than the version of the current Perl interpreter.
4478 Compare with L</use>, which can do a similar check at compile time.
4480 Specifying VERSION as a literal of the form v5.6.1 should generally be
4481 avoided, because it leads to misleading error messages under earlier
4482 versions of Perl that do not support this syntax. The equivalent numeric
4483 version should be used instead.
4485 require v5.6.1; # run time version check
4486 require 5.6.1; # ditto
4487 require 5.006_001; # ditto; preferred for backwards compatibility
4489 Otherwise, C<require> demands that a library file be included if it
4490 hasn't already been included. The file is included via the do-FILE
4491 mechanism, which is essentially just a variety of C<eval> with the
4492 caveat that lexical variables in the invoking script will be invisible
4493 to the included code. Has semantics similar to the following subroutine:
4496 my ($filename) = @_;
4497 if (exists $INC{$filename}) {
4498 return 1 if $INC{$filename};
4499 die "Compilation failed in require";
4501 my ($realfilename,$result);
4503 foreach $prefix (@INC) {
4504 $realfilename = "$prefix/$filename";
4505 if (-f $realfilename) {
4506 $INC{$filename} = $realfilename;
4507 $result = do $realfilename;
4511 die "Can't find $filename in \@INC";
4514 $INC{$filename} = undef;
4516 } elsif (!$result) {
4517 delete $INC{$filename};
4518 die "$filename did not return true value";
4524 Note that the file will not be included twice under the same specified
4527 The file must return true as the last statement to indicate
4528 successful execution of any initialization code, so it's customary to
4529 end such a file with C<1;> unless you're sure it'll return true
4530 otherwise. But it's better just to put the C<1;>, in case you add more
4533 If EXPR is a bareword, the require assumes a "F<.pm>" extension and
4534 replaces "F<::>" with "F</>" in the filename for you,
4535 to make it easy to load standard modules. This form of loading of
4536 modules does not risk altering your namespace.
4538 In other words, if you try this:
4540 require Foo::Bar; # a splendid bareword
4542 The require function will actually look for the "F<Foo/Bar.pm>" file in the
4543 directories specified in the C<@INC> array.
4545 But if you try this:
4547 $class = 'Foo::Bar';
4548 require $class; # $class is not a bareword
4550 require "Foo::Bar"; # not a bareword because of the ""
4552 The require function will look for the "F<Foo::Bar>" file in the @INC array and
4553 will complain about not finding "F<Foo::Bar>" there. In this case you can do:
4555 eval "require $class";
4557 Now that you understand how C<require> looks for files in the case of a
4558 bareword argument, there is a little extra functionality going on behind
4559 the scenes. Before C<require> looks for a "F<.pm>" extension, it will
4560 first look for a similar filename with a "F<.pmc>" extension. If this file
4561 is found, it will be loaded in place of any file ending in a "F<.pm>"
4564 You can also insert hooks into the import facility, by putting directly
4565 Perl code into the @INC array. There are three forms of hooks: subroutine
4566 references, array references and blessed objects.
4568 Subroutine references are the simplest case. When the inclusion system
4569 walks through @INC and encounters a subroutine, this subroutine gets
4570 called with two parameters, the first being a reference to itself, and the
4571 second the name of the file to be included (e.g. "F<Foo/Bar.pm>"). The
4572 subroutine should return nothing, or a list of up to three values in the
4579 A filehandle, from which the file will be read.
4583 A reference to a subroutine. If there is no filehandle (previous item),
4584 then this subroutine is expected to generate one line of source code per
4585 call, writing the line into C<$_> and returning 1, then returning 0 at
4586 "end of file". If there is a filehandle, then the subroutine will be
4587 called to act a simple source filter, with the line as read in C<$_>.
4588 Again, return 1 for each valid line, and 0 after all lines have been
4593 Optional state for the subroutine. The state is passed in as C<$_[1]>. A
4594 reference to the subroutine itself is passed in as C<$_[0]>.
4598 If an empty list, C<undef>, or nothing that matches the first 3 values above
4599 is returned then C<require> will look at the remaining elements of @INC.
4600 Note that this file handle must be a real file handle (strictly a typeglob,
4601 or reference to a typeglob, blessed or unblessed) - tied file handles will be
4602 ignored and return value processing will stop there.
4604 If the hook is an array reference, its first element must be a subroutine
4605 reference. This subroutine is called as above, but the first parameter is
4606 the array reference. This enables to pass indirectly some arguments to
4609 In other words, you can write:
4611 push @INC, \&my_sub;
4613 my ($coderef, $filename) = @_; # $coderef is \&my_sub
4619 push @INC, [ \&my_sub, $x, $y, ... ];
4621 my ($arrayref, $filename) = @_;
4622 # Retrieve $x, $y, ...
4623 my @parameters = @$arrayref[1..$#$arrayref];
4627 If the hook is an object, it must provide an INC method that will be
4628 called as above, the first parameter being the object itself. (Note that
4629 you must fully qualify the sub's name, as unqualified C<INC> is always forced
4630 into package C<main>.) Here is a typical code layout:
4636 my ($self, $filename) = @_;
4640 # In the main program
4641 push @INC, new Foo(...);
4643 Note that these hooks are also permitted to set the %INC entry
4644 corresponding to the files they have loaded. See L<perlvar/%INC>.
4646 For a yet-more-powerful import facility, see L</use> and L<perlmod>.
4653 Generally used in a C<continue> block at the end of a loop to clear
4654 variables and reset C<??> searches so that they work again. The
4655 expression is interpreted as a list of single characters (hyphens
4656 allowed for ranges). All variables and arrays beginning with one of
4657 those letters are reset to their pristine state. If the expression is
4658 omitted, one-match searches (C<?pattern?>) are reset to match again. Resets
4659 only variables or searches in the current package. Always returns
4662 reset 'X'; # reset all X variables
4663 reset 'a-z'; # reset lower case variables
4664 reset; # just reset ?one-time? searches
4666 Resetting C<"A-Z"> is not recommended because you'll wipe out your
4667 C<@ARGV> and C<@INC> arrays and your C<%ENV> hash. Resets only package
4668 variables--lexical variables are unaffected, but they clean themselves
4669 up on scope exit anyway, so you'll probably want to use them instead.
4677 Returns from a subroutine, C<eval>, or C<do FILE> with the value
4678 given in EXPR. Evaluation of EXPR may be in list, scalar, or void
4679 context, depending on how the return value will be used, and the context
4680 may vary from one execution to the next (see C<wantarray>). If no EXPR
4681 is given, returns an empty list in list context, the undefined value in
4682 scalar context, and (of course) nothing at all in a void context.
4684 (Note that in the absence of an explicit C<return>, a subroutine, eval,
4685 or do FILE will automatically return the value of the last expression
4689 X<reverse> X<rev> X<invert>
4691 In list context, returns a list value consisting of the elements
4692 of LIST in the opposite order. In scalar context, concatenates the
4693 elements of LIST and returns a string value with all characters
4694 in the opposite order.
4696 print reverse <>; # line tac, last line first
4698 undef $/; # for efficiency of <>
4699 print scalar reverse <>; # character tac, last line tsrif
4701 Used without arguments in scalar context, reverse() reverses C<$_>.
4703 This operator is also handy for inverting a hash, although there are some
4704 caveats. If a value is duplicated in the original hash, only one of those
4705 can be represented as a key in the inverted hash. Also, this has to
4706 unwind one hash and build a whole new one, which may take some time
4707 on a large hash, such as from a DBM file.
4709 %by_name = reverse %by_address; # Invert the hash
4711 =item rewinddir DIRHANDLE
4714 Sets the current position to the beginning of the directory for the
4715 C<readdir> routine on DIRHANDLE.
4717 =item rindex STR,SUBSTR,POSITION
4720 =item rindex STR,SUBSTR
4722 Works just like index() except that it returns the position of the I<last>
4723 occurrence of SUBSTR in STR. If POSITION is specified, returns the
4724 last occurrence beginning at or before that position.
4726 =item rmdir FILENAME
4727 X<rmdir> X<rd> X<directory, remove>
4731 Deletes the directory specified by FILENAME if that directory is
4732 empty. If it succeeds it returns true, otherwise it returns false and
4733 sets C<$!> (errno). If FILENAME is omitted, uses C<$_>.
4735 To remove a directory tree recursively (C<rm -rf> on unix) look at
4736 the C<rmtree> function of the L<File::Path> module.
4740 The substitution operator. See L<perlop>.
4742 =item say FILEHANDLE LIST
4749 Just like C<print>, but implicitly appends a newline.
4750 C<say LIST> is simply an abbreviation for C<{ local $\ = "\n"; print
4753 This keyword is only available when the "say" feature is
4754 enabled: see L<feature>.
4757 X<scalar> X<context>
4759 Forces EXPR to be interpreted in scalar context and returns the value
4762 @counts = ( scalar @a, scalar @b, scalar @c );
4764 There is no equivalent operator to force an expression to
4765 be interpolated in list context because in practice, this is never
4766 needed. If you really wanted to do so, however, you could use
4767 the construction C<@{[ (some expression) ]}>, but usually a simple
4768 C<(some expression)> suffices.
4770 Because C<scalar> is unary operator, if you accidentally use for EXPR a
4771 parenthesized list, this behaves as a scalar comma expression, evaluating
4772 all but the last element in void context and returning the final element
4773 evaluated in scalar context. This is seldom what you want.
4775 The following single statement:
4777 print uc(scalar(&foo,$bar)),$baz;
4779 is the moral equivalent of these two:
4782 print(uc($bar),$baz);
4784 See L<perlop> for more details on unary operators and the comma operator.
4786 =item seek FILEHANDLE,POSITION,WHENCE
4787 X<seek> X<fseek> X<filehandle, position>
4789 Sets FILEHANDLE's position, just like the C<fseek> call of C<stdio>.
4790 FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value gives the name of the
4791 filehandle. The values for WHENCE are C<0> to set the new position
4792 I<in bytes> to POSITION, C<1> to set it to the current position plus
4793 POSITION, and C<2> to set it to EOF plus POSITION (typically
4794 negative). For WHENCE you may use the constants C<SEEK_SET>,
4795 C<SEEK_CUR>, and C<SEEK_END> (start of the file, current position, end
4796 of the file) from the Fcntl module. Returns C<1> upon success, C<0>
4799 Note the I<in bytes>: even if the filehandle has been set to
4800 operate on characters (for example by using the C<:encoding(utf8)> open
4801 layer), tell() will return byte offsets, not character offsets
4802 (because implementing that would render seek() and tell() rather slow).
4804 If you want to position file for C<sysread> or C<syswrite>, don't use
4805 C<seek>--buffering makes its effect on the file's system position
4806 unpredictable and non-portable. Use C<sysseek> instead.
4808 Due to the rules and rigors of ANSI C, on some systems you have to do a
4809 seek whenever you switch between reading and writing. Amongst other
4810 things, this may have the effect of calling stdio's clearerr(3).
4811 A WHENCE of C<1> (C<SEEK_CUR>) is useful for not moving the file position:
4815 This is also useful for applications emulating C<tail -f>. Once you hit
4816 EOF on your read, and then sleep for a while, you might have to stick in a
4817 seek() to reset things. The C<seek> doesn't change the current position,
4818 but it I<does> clear the end-of-file condition on the handle, so that the
4819 next C<< <FILE> >> makes Perl try again to read something. We hope.
4821 If that doesn't work (some IO implementations are particularly
4822 cantankerous), then you may need something more like this:
4825 for ($curpos = tell(FILE); $_ = <FILE>;
4826 $curpos = tell(FILE)) {
4827 # search for some stuff and put it into files
4829 sleep($for_a_while);
4830 seek(FILE, $curpos, 0);
4833 =item seekdir DIRHANDLE,POS
4836 Sets the current position for the C<readdir> routine on DIRHANDLE. POS
4837 must be a value returned by C<telldir>. C<seekdir> also has the same caveats
4838 about possible directory compaction as the corresponding system library
4841 =item select FILEHANDLE
4842 X<select> X<filehandle, default>
4846 Returns the currently selected filehandle. If FILEHANDLE is supplied,
4847 sets the new current default filehandle for output. This has two
4848 effects: first, a C<write> or a C<print> without a filehandle will
4849 default to this FILEHANDLE. Second, references to variables related to
4850 output will refer to this output channel. For example, if you have to
4851 set the top of form format for more than one output channel, you might
4859 FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value gives the name of the
4860 actual filehandle. Thus:
4862 $oldfh = select(STDERR); $| = 1; select($oldfh);
4864 Some programmers may prefer to think of filehandles as objects with
4865 methods, preferring to write the last example as:
4868 STDERR->autoflush(1);
4870 =item select RBITS,WBITS,EBITS,TIMEOUT
4873 This calls the select(2) system call with the bit masks specified, which
4874 can be constructed using C<fileno> and C<vec>, along these lines:
4876 $rin = $win = $ein = '';
4877 vec($rin,fileno(STDIN),1) = 1;
4878 vec($win,fileno(STDOUT),1) = 1;
4881 If you want to select on many filehandles you might wish to write a
4885 my(@fhlist) = split(' ',$_[0]);
4888 vec($bits,fileno($_),1) = 1;
4892 $rin = fhbits('STDIN TTY SOCK');
4896 ($nfound,$timeleft) =
4897 select($rout=$rin, $wout=$win, $eout=$ein, $timeout);
4899 or to block until something becomes ready just do this
4901 $nfound = select($rout=$rin, $wout=$win, $eout=$ein, undef);
4903 Most systems do not bother to return anything useful in $timeleft, so
4904 calling select() in scalar context just returns $nfound.
4906 Any of the bit masks can also be undef. The timeout, if specified, is
4907 in seconds, which may be fractional. Note: not all implementations are
4908 capable of returning the $timeleft. If not, they always return
4909 $timeleft equal to the supplied $timeout.
4911 You can effect a sleep of 250 milliseconds this way:
4913 select(undef, undef, undef, 0.25);
4915 Note that whether C<select> gets restarted after signals (say, SIGALRM)
4916 is implementation-dependent. See also L<perlport> for notes on the
4917 portability of C<select>.
4919 On error, C<select> behaves like the select(2) system call : it returns
4922 Note: on some Unixes, the select(2) system call may report a socket file
4923 descriptor as "ready for reading", when actually no data is available,
4924 thus a subsequent read blocks. It can be avoided using always the
4925 O_NONBLOCK flag on the socket. See select(2) and fcntl(2) for further
4928 B<WARNING>: One should not attempt to mix buffered I/O (like C<read>
4929 or <FH>) with C<select>, except as permitted by POSIX, and even
4930 then only on POSIX systems. You have to use C<sysread> instead.
4932 =item semctl ID,SEMNUM,CMD,ARG
4935 Calls the System V IPC function C<semctl>. You'll probably have to say
4939 first to get the correct constant definitions. If CMD is IPC_STAT or
4940 GETALL, then ARG must be a variable that will hold the returned
4941 semid_ds structure or semaphore value array. Returns like C<ioctl>:
4942 the undefined value for error, "C<0 but true>" for zero, or the actual
4943 return value otherwise. The ARG must consist of a vector of native
4944 short integers, which may be created with C<pack("s!",(0)x$nsem)>.
4945 See also L<perlipc/"SysV IPC">, C<IPC::SysV>, C<IPC::Semaphore>
4948 =item semget KEY,NSEMS,FLAGS
4951 Calls the System V IPC function semget. Returns the semaphore id, or
4952 the undefined value if there is an error. See also
4953 L<perlipc/"SysV IPC">, C<IPC::SysV>, C<IPC::SysV::Semaphore>
4956 =item semop KEY,OPSTRING
4959 Calls the System V IPC function semop to perform semaphore operations
4960 such as signalling and waiting. OPSTRING must be a packed array of
4961 semop structures. Each semop structure can be generated with
4962 C<pack("s!3", $semnum, $semop, $semflag)>. The length of OPSTRING
4963 implies the number of semaphore operations. Returns true if
4964 successful, or false if there is an error. As an example, the
4965 following code waits on semaphore $semnum of semaphore id $semid:
4967 $semop = pack("s!3", $semnum, -1, 0);
4968 die "Semaphore trouble: $!\n" unless semop($semid, $semop);
4970 To signal the semaphore, replace C<-1> with C<1>. See also
4971 L<perlipc/"SysV IPC">, C<IPC::SysV>, and C<IPC::SysV::Semaphore>
4974 =item send SOCKET,MSG,FLAGS,TO
4977 =item send SOCKET,MSG,FLAGS
4979 Sends a message on a socket. Attempts to send the scalar MSG to the
4980 SOCKET filehandle. Takes the same flags as the system call of the
4981 same name. On unconnected sockets you must specify a destination to
4982 send TO, in which case it does a C C<sendto>. Returns the number of
4983 characters sent, or the undefined value if there is an error. The C
4984 system call sendmsg(2) is currently unimplemented. See
4985 L<perlipc/"UDP: Message Passing"> for examples.
4987 Note the I<characters>: depending on the status of the socket, either
4988 (8-bit) bytes or characters are sent. By default all sockets operate
4989 on bytes, but for example if the socket has been changed using
4990 binmode() to operate with the C<:encoding(utf8)> I/O layer (see
4991 L</open>, or the C<open> pragma, L<open>), the I/O will operate on UTF-8
4992 encoded Unicode characters, not bytes. Similarly for the C<:encoding>
4993 pragma: in that case pretty much any characters can be sent.
4995 =item setpgrp PID,PGRP
4998 Sets the current process group for the specified PID, C<0> for the current
4999 process. Will produce a fatal error if used on a machine that doesn't
5000 implement POSIX setpgid(2) or BSD setpgrp(2). If the arguments are omitted,
5001 it defaults to C<0,0>. Note that the BSD 4.2 version of C<setpgrp> does not
5002 accept any arguments, so only C<setpgrp(0,0)> is portable. See also
5005 =item setpriority WHICH,WHO,PRIORITY
5006 X<setpriority> X<priority> X<nice> X<renice>
5008 Sets the current priority for a process, a process group, or a user.
5009 (See setpriority(2).) Will produce a fatal error if used on a machine
5010 that doesn't implement setpriority(2).
5012 =item setsockopt SOCKET,LEVEL,OPTNAME,OPTVAL
5015 Sets the socket option requested. Returns undefined if there is an
5016 error. Use integer constants provided by the C<Socket> module for
5017 LEVEL and OPNAME. Values for LEVEL can also be obtained from
5018 getprotobyname. OPTVAL might either be a packed string or an integer.
5019 An integer OPTVAL is shorthand for pack("i", OPTVAL).
5021 An example disabling the Nagle's algorithm for a socket:
5023 use Socket qw(IPPROTO_TCP TCP_NODELAY);
5024 setsockopt($socket, IPPROTO_TCP, TCP_NODELAY, 1);
5031 Shifts the first value of the array off and returns it, shortening the
5032 array by 1 and moving everything down. If there are no elements in the
5033 array, returns the undefined value. If ARRAY is omitted, shifts the
5034 C<@_> array within the lexical scope of subroutines and formats, and the
5035 C<@ARGV> array outside of a subroutine and also within the lexical scopes
5036 established by the C<eval STRING>, C<BEGIN {}>, C<INIT {}>, C<CHECK {}>,
5037 C<UNITCHECK {}> and C<END {}> constructs.
5039 See also C<unshift>, C<push>, and C<pop>. C<shift> and C<unshift> do the
5040 same thing to the left end of an array that C<pop> and C<push> do to the
5043 =item shmctl ID,CMD,ARG
5046 Calls the System V IPC function shmctl. You'll probably have to say
5050 first to get the correct constant definitions. If CMD is C<IPC_STAT>,
5051 then ARG must be a variable that will hold the returned C<shmid_ds>
5052 structure. Returns like ioctl: the undefined value for error, "C<0> but
5053 true" for zero, or the actual return value otherwise.
5054 See also L<perlipc/"SysV IPC"> and C<IPC::SysV> documentation.
5056 =item shmget KEY,SIZE,FLAGS
5059 Calls the System V IPC function shmget. Returns the shared memory
5060 segment id, or the undefined value if there is an error.
5061 See also L<perlipc/"SysV IPC"> and C<IPC::SysV> documentation.
5063 =item shmread ID,VAR,POS,SIZE
5067 =item shmwrite ID,STRING,POS,SIZE
5069 Reads or writes the System V shared memory segment ID starting at
5070 position POS for size SIZE by attaching to it, copying in/out, and
5071 detaching from it. When reading, VAR must be a variable that will
5072 hold the data read. When writing, if STRING is too long, only SIZE
5073 bytes are used; if STRING is too short, nulls are written to fill out
5074 SIZE bytes. Return true if successful, or false if there is an error.
5075 shmread() taints the variable. See also L<perlipc/"SysV IPC">,
5076 C<IPC::SysV> documentation, and the C<IPC::Shareable> module from CPAN.
5078 =item shutdown SOCKET,HOW
5081 Shuts down a socket connection in the manner indicated by HOW, which
5082 has the same interpretation as in the system call of the same name.
5084 shutdown(SOCKET, 0); # I/we have stopped reading data
5085 shutdown(SOCKET, 1); # I/we have stopped writing data
5086 shutdown(SOCKET, 2); # I/we have stopped using this socket
5088 This is useful with sockets when you want to tell the other
5089 side you're done writing but not done reading, or vice versa.
5090 It's also a more insistent form of close because it also
5091 disables the file descriptor in any forked copies in other
5095 X<sin> X<sine> X<asin> X<arcsine>
5099 Returns the sine of EXPR (expressed in radians). If EXPR is omitted,
5100 returns sine of C<$_>.
5102 For the inverse sine operation, you may use the C<Math::Trig::asin>
5103 function, or use this relation:
5105 sub asin { atan2($_[0], sqrt(1 - $_[0] * $_[0])) }
5112 Causes the script to sleep for EXPR seconds, or forever if no EXPR.
5113 May be interrupted if the process receives a signal such as C<SIGALRM>.
5114 Returns the number of seconds actually slept. You probably cannot
5115 mix C<alarm> and C<sleep> calls, because C<sleep> is often implemented
5118 On some older systems, it may sleep up to a full second less than what
5119 you requested, depending on how it counts seconds. Most modern systems
5120 always sleep the full amount. They may appear to sleep longer than that,
5121 however, because your process might not be scheduled right away in a
5122 busy multitasking system.
5124 For delays of finer granularity than one second, the Time::HiRes module
5125 (from CPAN, and starting from Perl 5.8 part of the standard
5126 distribution) provides usleep(). You may also use Perl's four-argument
5127 version of select() leaving the first three arguments undefined, or you
5128 might be able to use the C<syscall> interface to access setitimer(2) if
5129 your system supports it. See L<perlfaq8> for details.
5131 See also the POSIX module's C<pause> function.
5133 =item socket SOCKET,DOMAIN,TYPE,PROTOCOL
5136 Opens a socket of the specified kind and attaches it to filehandle
5137 SOCKET. DOMAIN, TYPE, and PROTOCOL are specified the same as for
5138 the system call of the same name. You should C<use Socket> first
5139 to get the proper definitions imported. See the examples in
5140 L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server Communication">.
5142 On systems that support a close-on-exec flag on files, the flag will
5143 be set for the newly opened file descriptor, as determined by the
5144 value of $^F. See L<perlvar/$^F>.
5146 =item socketpair SOCKET1,SOCKET2,DOMAIN,TYPE,PROTOCOL
5149 Creates an unnamed pair of sockets in the specified domain, of the
5150 specified type. DOMAIN, TYPE, and PROTOCOL are specified the same as
5151 for the system call of the same name. If unimplemented, yields a fatal
5152 error. Returns true if successful.
5154 On systems that support a close-on-exec flag on files, the flag will
5155 be set for the newly opened file descriptors, as determined by the value
5156 of $^F. See L<perlvar/$^F>.
5158 Some systems defined C<pipe> in terms of C<socketpair>, in which a call
5159 to C<pipe(Rdr, Wtr)> is essentially:
5162 socketpair(Rdr, Wtr, AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, PF_UNSPEC);
5163 shutdown(Rdr, 1); # no more writing for reader
5164 shutdown(Wtr, 0); # no more reading for writer
5166 See L<perlipc> for an example of socketpair use. Perl 5.8 and later will
5167 emulate socketpair using IP sockets to localhost if your system implements
5168 sockets but not socketpair.
5170 =item sort SUBNAME LIST
5171 X<sort> X<qsort> X<quicksort> X<mergesort>
5173 =item sort BLOCK LIST
5177 In list context, this sorts the LIST and returns the sorted list value.
5178 In scalar context, the behaviour of C<sort()> is undefined.
5180 If SUBNAME or BLOCK is omitted, C<sort>s in standard string comparison
5181 order. If SUBNAME is specified, it gives the name of a subroutine
5182 that returns an integer less than, equal to, or greater than C<0>,
5183 depending on how the elements of the list are to be ordered. (The C<<
5184 <=> >> and C<cmp> operators are extremely useful in such routines.)
5185 SUBNAME may be a scalar variable name (unsubscripted), in which case
5186 the value provides the name of (or a reference to) the actual
5187 subroutine to use. In place of a SUBNAME, you can provide a BLOCK as
5188 an anonymous, in-line sort subroutine.
5190 If the subroutine's prototype is C<($$)>, the elements to be compared
5191 are passed by reference in C<@_>, as for a normal subroutine. This is
5192 slower than unprototyped subroutines, where the elements to be
5193 compared are passed into the subroutine
5194 as the package global variables $a and $b (see example below). Note that
5195 in the latter case, it is usually counter-productive to declare $a and
5198 The values to be compared are always passed by reference and should not
5201 You also cannot exit out of the sort block or subroutine using any of the
5202 loop control operators described in L<perlsyn> or with C<goto>.
5204 When C<use locale> is in effect, C<sort LIST> sorts LIST according to the
5205 current collation locale. See L<perllocale>.
5207 sort() returns aliases into the original list, much as a for loop's index
5208 variable aliases the list elements. That is, modifying an element of a
5209 list returned by sort() (for example, in a C<foreach>, C<map> or C<grep>)
5210 actually modifies the element in the original list. This is usually
5211 something to be avoided when writing clear code.
5213 Perl 5.6 and earlier used a quicksort algorithm to implement sort.
5214 That algorithm was not stable, and I<could> go quadratic. (A I<stable> sort
5215 preserves the input order of elements that compare equal. Although
5216 quicksort's run time is O(NlogN) when averaged over all arrays of
5217 length N, the time can be O(N**2), I<quadratic> behavior, for some
5218 inputs.) In 5.7, the quicksort implementation was replaced with
5219 a stable mergesort algorithm whose worst-case behavior is O(NlogN).
5220 But benchmarks indicated that for some inputs, on some platforms,
5221 the original quicksort was faster. 5.8 has a sort pragma for
5222 limited control of the sort. Its rather blunt control of the
5223 underlying algorithm may not persist into future Perls, but the
5224 ability to characterize the input or output in implementation
5225 independent ways quite probably will. See L<sort>.
5230 @articles = sort @files;
5232 # same thing, but with explicit sort routine
5233 @articles = sort {$a cmp $b} @files;
5235 # now case-insensitively
5236 @articles = sort {uc($a) cmp uc($b)} @files;
5238 # same thing in reversed order
5239 @articles = sort {$b cmp $a} @files;
5241 # sort numerically ascending
5242 @articles = sort {$a <=> $b} @files;
5244 # sort numerically descending
5245 @articles = sort {$b <=> $a} @files;
5247 # this sorts the %age hash by value instead of key
5248 # using an in-line function
5249 @eldest = sort { $age{$b} <=> $age{$a} } keys %age;
5251 # sort using explicit subroutine name
5253 $age{$a} <=> $age{$b}; # presuming numeric
5255 @sortedclass = sort byage @class;
5257 sub backwards { $b cmp $a }
5258 @harry = qw(dog cat x Cain Abel);
5259 @george = qw(gone chased yz Punished Axed);
5261 # prints AbelCaincatdogx
5262 print sort backwards @harry;
5263 # prints xdogcatCainAbel
5264 print sort @george, 'to', @harry;
5265 # prints AbelAxedCainPunishedcatchaseddoggonetoxyz
5267 # inefficiently sort by descending numeric compare using
5268 # the first integer after the first = sign, or the
5269 # whole record case-insensitively otherwise
5272 ($b =~ /=(\d+)/)[0] <=> ($a =~ /=(\d+)/)[0]
5277 # same thing, but much more efficiently;
5278 # we'll build auxiliary indices instead
5282 push @nums, /=(\d+)/;
5287 $nums[$b] <=> $nums[$a]
5289 $caps[$a] cmp $caps[$b]
5293 # same thing, but without any temps
5294 @new = map { $_->[0] }
5295 sort { $b->[1] <=> $a->[1]
5298 } map { [$_, /=(\d+)/, uc($_)] } @old;
5300 # using a prototype allows you to use any comparison subroutine
5301 # as a sort subroutine (including other package's subroutines)
5303 sub backwards ($$) { $_[1] cmp $_[0]; } # $a and $b are not set here
5306 @new = sort other::backwards @old;
5308 # guarantee stability, regardless of algorithm
5310 @new = sort { substr($a, 3, 5) cmp substr($b, 3, 5) } @old;
5312 # force use of mergesort (not portable outside Perl 5.8)
5313 use sort '_mergesort'; # note discouraging _
5314 @new = sort { substr($a, 3, 5) cmp substr($b, 3, 5) } @old;
5316 If you're using strict, you I<must not> declare $a
5317 and $b as lexicals. They are package globals. That means
5318 if you're in the C<main> package and type
5320 @articles = sort {$b <=> $a} @files;
5322 then C<$a> and C<$b> are C<$main::a> and C<$main::b> (or C<$::a> and C<$::b>),
5323 but if you're in the C<FooPack> package, it's the same as typing
5325 @articles = sort {$FooPack::b <=> $FooPack::a} @files;
5327 The comparison function is required to behave. If it returns
5328 inconsistent results (sometimes saying C<$x[1]> is less than C<$x[2]> and
5329 sometimes saying the opposite, for example) the results are not
5332 Because C<< <=> >> returns C<undef> when either operand is C<NaN>
5333 (not-a-number), and because C<sort> will trigger a fatal error unless the
5334 result of a comparison is defined, when sorting with a comparison function
5335 like C<< $a <=> $b >>, be careful about lists that might contain a C<NaN>.
5336 The following example takes advantage of the fact that C<NaN != NaN> to
5337 eliminate any C<NaN>s from the input.
5339 @result = sort { $a <=> $b } grep { $_ == $_ } @input;
5341 =item splice ARRAY,OFFSET,LENGTH,LIST
5344 =item splice ARRAY,OFFSET,LENGTH
5346 =item splice ARRAY,OFFSET
5350 Removes the elements designated by OFFSET and LENGTH from an array, and
5351 replaces them with the elements of LIST, if any. In list context,
5352 returns the elements removed from the array. In scalar context,
5353 returns the last element removed, or C<undef> if no elements are
5354 removed. The array grows or shrinks as necessary.
5355 If OFFSET is negative then it starts that far from the end of the array.
5356 If LENGTH is omitted, removes everything from OFFSET onward.
5357 If LENGTH is negative, removes the elements from OFFSET onward
5358 except for -LENGTH elements at the end of the array.
5359 If both OFFSET and LENGTH are omitted, removes everything. If OFFSET is
5360 past the end of the array, perl issues a warning, and splices at the
5363 The following equivalences hold (assuming C<< $[ == 0 and $#a >= $i >> )
5365 push(@a,$x,$y) splice(@a,@a,0,$x,$y)
5366 pop(@a) splice(@a,-1)
5367 shift(@a) splice(@a,0,1)
5368 unshift(@a,$x,$y) splice(@a,0,0,$x,$y)
5369 $a[$i] = $y splice(@a,$i,1,$y)
5371 Example, assuming array lengths are passed before arrays:
5373 sub aeq { # compare two list values
5374 my(@a) = splice(@_,0,shift);
5375 my(@b) = splice(@_,0,shift);
5376 return 0 unless @a == @b; # same len?
5378 return 0 if pop(@a) ne pop(@b);
5382 if (&aeq($len,@foo[1..$len],0+@bar,@bar)) { ... }
5384 =item split /PATTERN/,EXPR,LIMIT
5387 =item split /PATTERN/,EXPR
5389 =item split /PATTERN/
5393 Splits the string EXPR into a list of strings and returns that list. By
5394 default, empty leading fields are preserved, and empty trailing ones are
5395 deleted. (If all fields are empty, they are considered to be trailing.)
5397 In scalar context, returns the number of fields found and splits into
5398 the C<@_> array. Use of split in scalar context is deprecated, however,
5399 because it clobbers your subroutine arguments.
5401 If EXPR is omitted, splits the C<$_> string. If PATTERN is also omitted,
5402 splits on whitespace (after skipping any leading whitespace). Anything
5403 matching PATTERN is taken to be a delimiter separating the fields. (Note
5404 that the delimiter may be longer than one character.)
5406 If LIMIT is specified and positive, it represents the maximum number
5407 of fields the EXPR will be split into, though the actual number of
5408 fields returned depends on the number of times PATTERN matches within
5409 EXPR. If LIMIT is unspecified or zero, trailing null fields are
5410 stripped (which potential users of C<pop> would do well to remember).
5411 If LIMIT is negative, it is treated as if an arbitrarily large LIMIT
5412 had been specified. Note that splitting an EXPR that evaluates to the
5413 empty string always returns the empty list, regardless of the LIMIT
5416 A pattern matching the null string (not to be confused with
5417 a null pattern C<//>, which is just one member of the set of patterns
5418 matching a null string) will split the value of EXPR into separate
5419 characters at each point it matches that way. For example:
5421 print join(':', split(/ */, 'hi there'));
5423 produces the output 'h:i:t:h:e:r:e'.
5425 As a special case for C<split>, using the empty pattern C<//> specifically
5426 matches only the null string, and is not be confused with the regular use
5427 of C<//> to mean "the last successful pattern match". So, for C<split>,
5430 print join(':', split(//, 'hi there'));
5432 produces the output 'h:i: :t:h:e:r:e'.
5434 Empty leading fields are produced when there are positive-width matches at
5435 the beginning of the string; a zero-width match at the beginning of
5436 the string does not produce an empty field. For example:
5438 print join(':', split(/(?=\w)/, 'hi there!'));
5440 produces the output 'h:i :t:h:e:r:e!'. Empty trailing fields, on the other
5441 hand, are produced when there is a match at the end of the string (and
5442 when LIMIT is given and is not 0), regardless of the length of the match.
5445 print join(':', split(//, 'hi there!', -1));
5446 print join(':', split(/\W/, 'hi there!', -1));
5448 produce the output 'h:i: :t:h:e:r:e:!:' and 'hi:there:', respectively,
5449 both with an empty trailing field.
5451 The LIMIT parameter can be used to split a line partially
5453 ($login, $passwd, $remainder) = split(/:/, $_, 3);
5455 When assigning to a list, if LIMIT is omitted, or zero, Perl supplies
5456 a LIMIT one larger than the number of variables in the list, to avoid
5457 unnecessary work. For the list above LIMIT would have been 4 by
5458 default. In time critical applications it behooves you not to split
5459 into more fields than you really need.
5461 If the PATTERN contains parentheses, additional list elements are
5462 created from each matching substring in the delimiter.
5464 split(/([,-])/, "1-10,20", 3);
5466 produces the list value
5468 (1, '-', 10, ',', 20)
5470 If you had the entire header of a normal Unix email message in $header,
5471 you could split it up into fields and their values this way:
5473 $header =~ s/\n\s+/ /g; # fix continuation lines
5474 %hdrs = (UNIX_FROM => split /^(\S*?):\s*/m, $header);
5476 The pattern C</PATTERN/> may be replaced with an expression to specify
5477 patterns that vary at runtime. (To do runtime compilation only once,
5478 use C</$variable/o>.)
5480 As a special case, specifying a PATTERN of space (S<C<' '>>) will split on
5481 white space just as C<split> with no arguments does. Thus, S<C<split(' ')>> can
5482 be used to emulate B<awk>'s default behavior, whereas S<C<split(/ /)>>
5483 will give you as many null initial fields as there are leading spaces.
5484 A C<split> on C</\s+/> is like a S<C<split(' ')>> except that any leading
5485 whitespace produces a null first field. A C<split> with no arguments
5486 really does a S<C<split(' ', $_)>> internally.
5488 A PATTERN of C</^/> is treated as if it were C</^/m>, since it isn't
5493 open(PASSWD, '/etc/passwd');
5496 ($login, $passwd, $uid, $gid,
5497 $gcos, $home, $shell) = split(/:/);
5501 As with regular pattern matching, any capturing parentheses that are not
5502 matched in a C<split()> will be set to C<undef> when returned:
5504 @fields = split /(A)|B/, "1A2B3";
5505 # @fields is (1, 'A', 2, undef, 3)
5507 =item sprintf FORMAT, LIST
5510 Returns a string formatted by the usual C<printf> conventions of the C
5511 library function C<sprintf>. See below for more details
5512 and see L<sprintf(3)> or L<printf(3)> on your system for an explanation of
5513 the general principles.
5517 # Format number with up to 8 leading zeroes
5518 $result = sprintf("%08d", $number);
5520 # Round number to 3 digits after decimal point
5521 $rounded = sprintf("%.3f", $number);
5523 Perl does its own C<sprintf> formatting--it emulates the C
5524 function C<sprintf>, but it doesn't use it (except for floating-point
5525 numbers, and even then only the standard modifiers are allowed). As a
5526 result, any non-standard extensions in your local C<sprintf> are not
5527 available from Perl.
5529 Unlike C<printf>, C<sprintf> does not do what you probably mean when you
5530 pass it an array as your first argument. The array is given scalar context,
5531 and instead of using the 0th element of the array as the format, Perl will
5532 use the count of elements in the array as the format, which is almost never
5535 Perl's C<sprintf> permits the following universally-known conversions:
5538 %c a character with the given number
5540 %d a signed integer, in decimal
5541 %u an unsigned integer, in decimal
5542 %o an unsigned integer, in octal
5543 %x an unsigned integer, in hexadecimal
5544 %e a floating-point number, in scientific notation
5545 %f a floating-point number, in fixed decimal notation
5546 %g a floating-point number, in %e or %f notation
5548 In addition, Perl permits the following widely-supported conversions:
5550 %X like %x, but using upper-case letters
5551 %E like %e, but using an upper-case "E"
5552 %G like %g, but with an upper-case "E" (if applicable)
5553 %b an unsigned integer, in binary
5554 %B like %b, but using an upper-case "B" with the # flag
5555 %p a pointer (outputs the Perl value's address in hexadecimal)
5556 %n special: *stores* the number of characters output so far
5557 into the next variable in the parameter list
5559 Finally, for backward (and we do mean "backward") compatibility, Perl
5560 permits these unnecessary but widely-supported conversions:
5563 %D a synonym for %ld
5564 %U a synonym for %lu
5565 %O a synonym for %lo
5568 Note that the number of exponent digits in the scientific notation produced
5569 by C<%e>, C<%E>, C<%g> and C<%G> for numbers with the modulus of the
5570 exponent less than 100 is system-dependent: it may be three or less
5571 (zero-padded as necessary). In other words, 1.23 times ten to the
5572 99th may be either "1.23e99" or "1.23e099".
5574 Between the C<%> and the format letter, you may specify a number of
5575 additional attributes controlling the interpretation of the format.
5576 In order, these are:
5580 =item format parameter index
5582 An explicit format parameter index, such as C<2$>. By default sprintf
5583 will format the next unused argument in the list, but this allows you
5584 to take the arguments out of order, e.g.:
5586 printf '%2$d %1$d', 12, 34; # prints "34 12"
5587 printf '%3$d %d %1$d', 1, 2, 3; # prints "3 1 1"
5593 space prefix positive number with a space
5594 + prefix positive number with a plus sign
5595 - left-justify within the field
5596 0 use zeros, not spaces, to right-justify
5597 # ensure the leading "0" for any octal,
5598 prefix non-zero hexadecimal with "0x" or "0X",
5599 prefix non-zero binary with "0b" or "0B"
5603 printf '<% d>', 12; # prints "< 12>"
5604 printf '<%+d>', 12; # prints "<+12>"
5605 printf '<%6s>', 12; # prints "< 12>"
5606 printf '<%-6s>', 12; # prints "<12 >"
5607 printf '<%06s>', 12; # prints "<000012>"
5608 printf '<%#o>', 12; # prints "<014>"
5609 printf '<%#x>', 12; # prints "<0xc>"
5610 printf '<%#X>', 12; # prints "<0XC>"
5611 printf '<%#b>', 12; # prints "<0b1100>"
5612 printf '<%#B>', 12; # prints "<0B1100>"
5614 When a space and a plus sign are given as the flags at once,
5615 a plus sign is used to prefix a positive number.
5617 printf '<%+ d>', 12; # prints "<+12>"
5618 printf '<% +d>', 12; # prints "<+12>"
5620 When the # flag and a precision are given in the %o conversion,
5621 the precision is incremented if it's necessary for the leading "0".
5623 printf '<%#.5o>', 012; # prints "<00012>"
5624 printf '<%#.5o>', 012345; # prints "<012345>"
5625 printf '<%#.0o>', 0; # prints "<0>"
5629 This flag tells perl to interpret the supplied string as a vector of
5630 integers, one for each character in the string. Perl applies the format to
5631 each integer in turn, then joins the resulting strings with a separator (a
5632 dot C<.> by default). This can be useful for displaying ordinal values of
5633 characters in arbitrary strings:
5635 printf "%vd", "AB\x{100}"; # prints "65.66.256"
5636 printf "version is v%vd\n", $^V; # Perl's version
5638 Put an asterisk C<*> before the C<v> to override the string to
5639 use to separate the numbers:
5641 printf "address is %*vX\n", ":", $addr; # IPv6 address
5642 printf "bits are %0*v8b\n", " ", $bits; # random bitstring
5644 You can also explicitly specify the argument number to use for
5645 the join string using e.g. C<*2$v>:
5647 printf '%*4$vX %*4$vX %*4$vX', @addr[1..3], ":"; # 3 IPv6 addresses
5649 =item (minimum) width
5651 Arguments are usually formatted to be only as wide as required to
5652 display the given value. You can override the width by putting
5653 a number here, or get the width from the next argument (with C<*>)
5654 or from a specified argument (with e.g. C<*2$>):
5656 printf '<%s>', "a"; # prints "<a>"
5657 printf '<%6s>', "a"; # prints "< a>"
5658 printf '<%*s>', 6, "a"; # prints "< a>"
5659 printf '<%*2$s>', "a", 6; # prints "< a>"
5660 printf '<%2s>', "long"; # prints "<long>" (does not truncate)
5662 If a field width obtained through C<*> is negative, it has the same
5663 effect as the C<-> flag: left-justification.
5665 =item precision, or maximum width
5668 You can specify a precision (for numeric conversions) or a maximum
5669 width (for string conversions) by specifying a C<.> followed by a number.
5670 For floating point formats, with the exception of 'g' and 'G', this specifies
5671 the number of decimal places to show (the default being 6), e.g.:
5673 # these examples are subject to system-specific variation
5674 printf '<%f>', 1; # prints "<1.000000>"
5675 printf '<%.1f>', 1; # prints "<1.0>"
5676 printf '<%.0f>', 1; # prints "<1>"
5677 printf '<%e>', 10; # prints "<1.000000e+01>"
5678 printf '<%.1e>', 10; # prints "<1.0e+01>"
5680 For 'g' and 'G', this specifies the maximum number of digits to show,
5681 including prior to the decimal point as well as after it, e.g.:
5683 # these examples are subject to system-specific variation
5684 printf '<%g>', 1; # prints "<1>"
5685 printf '<%.10g>', 1; # prints "<1>"
5686 printf '<%g>', 100; # prints "<100>"
5687 printf '<%.1g>', 100; # prints "<1e+02>"
5688 printf '<%.2g>', 100.01; # prints "<1e+02>"
5689 printf '<%.5g>', 100.01; # prints "<100.01>"
5690 printf '<%.4g>', 100.01; # prints "<100>"
5692 For integer conversions, specifying a precision implies that the
5693 output of the number itself should be zero-padded to this width,
5694 where the 0 flag is ignored:
5696 printf '<%.6d>', 1; # prints "<000001>"
5697 printf '<%+.6d>', 1; # prints "<+000001>"
5698 printf '<%-10.6d>', 1; # prints "<000001 >"
5699 printf '<%10.6d>', 1; # prints "< 000001>"
5700 printf '<%010.6d>', 1; # prints "< 000001>"
5701 printf '<%+10.6d>', 1; # prints "< +000001>"
5703 printf '<%.6x>', 1; # prints "<000001>"
5704 printf '<%#.6x>', 1; # prints "<0x000001>"
5705 printf '<%-10.6x>', 1; # prints "<000001 >"
5706 printf '<%10.6x>', 1; # prints "< 000001>"
5707 printf '<%010.6x>', 1; # prints "< 000001>"
5708 printf '<%#10.6x>', 1; # prints "< 0x000001>"
5710 For string conversions, specifying a precision truncates the string
5711 to fit in the specified width:
5713 printf '<%.5s>', "truncated"; # prints "<trunc>"
5714 printf '<%10.5s>', "truncated"; # prints "< trunc>"
5716 You can also get the precision from the next argument using C<.*>:
5718 printf '<%.6x>', 1; # prints "<000001>"
5719 printf '<%.*x>', 6, 1; # prints "<000001>"
5721 If a precision obtained through C<*> is negative, it has the same
5722 effect as no precision.
5724 printf '<%.*s>', 7, "string"; # prints "<string>"
5725 printf '<%.*s>', 3, "string"; # prints "<str>"
5726 printf '<%.*s>', 0, "string"; # prints "<>"
5727 printf '<%.*s>', -1, "string"; # prints "<string>"
5729 printf '<%.*d>', 1, 0; # prints "<0>"
5730 printf '<%.*d>', 0, 0; # prints "<>"
5731 printf '<%.*d>', -1, 0; # prints "<0>"
5733 You cannot currently get the precision from a specified number,
5734 but it is intended that this will be possible in the future using
5737 printf '<%.*2$x>', 1, 6; # INVALID, but in future will print "<000001>"
5741 For numeric conversions, you can specify the size to interpret the
5742 number as using C<l>, C<h>, C<V>, C<q>, C<L>, or C<ll>. For integer
5743 conversions (C<d u o x X b i D U O>), numbers are usually assumed to be
5744 whatever the default integer size is on your platform (usually 32 or 64
5745 bits), but you can override this to use instead one of the standard C types,
5746 as supported by the compiler used to build Perl:
5748 l interpret integer as C type "long" or "unsigned long"
5749 h interpret integer as C type "short" or "unsigned short"
5750 q, L or ll interpret integer as C type "long long", "unsigned long long".
5751 or "quads" (typically 64-bit integers)
5753 The last will produce errors if Perl does not understand "quads" in your
5754 installation. (This requires that either the platform natively supports quads
5755 or Perl was specifically compiled to support quads.) You can find out
5756 whether your Perl supports quads via L<Config>:
5759 ($Config{use64bitint} eq 'define' || $Config{longsize} >= 8) &&
5762 For floating point conversions (C<e f g E F G>), numbers are usually assumed
5763 to be the default floating point size on your platform (double or long double),
5764 but you can force 'long double' with C<q>, C<L>, or C<ll> if your
5765 platform supports them. You can find out whether your Perl supports long
5766 doubles via L<Config>:
5769 $Config{d_longdbl} eq 'define' && print "long doubles\n";
5771 You can find out whether Perl considers 'long double' to be the default
5772 floating point size to use on your platform via L<Config>:
5775 ($Config{uselongdouble} eq 'define') &&
5776 print "long doubles by default\n";
5778 It can also be the case that long doubles and doubles are the same thing:
5781 ($Config{doublesize} == $Config{longdblsize}) &&
5782 print "doubles are long doubles\n";
5784 The size specifier C<V> has no effect for Perl code, but it is supported
5785 for compatibility with XS code; it means 'use the standard size for
5786 a Perl integer (or floating-point number)', which is already the
5787 default for Perl code.
5789 =item order of arguments
5791 Normally, sprintf takes the next unused argument as the value to
5792 format for each format specification. If the format specification
5793 uses C<*> to require additional arguments, these are consumed from
5794 the argument list in the order in which they appear in the format
5795 specification I<before> the value to format. Where an argument is
5796 specified using an explicit index, this does not affect the normal
5797 order for the arguments (even when the explicitly specified index
5798 would have been the next argument in any case).
5802 printf '<%*.*s>', $a, $b, $c;
5804 would use C<$a> for the width, C<$b> for the precision and C<$c>
5805 as the value to format, while:
5807 printf '<%*1$.*s>', $a, $b;
5809 would use C<$a> for the width and the precision, and C<$b> as the
5812 Here are some more examples - beware that when using an explicit
5813 index, the C<$> may need to be escaped:
5815 printf "%2\$d %d\n", 12, 34; # will print "34 12\n"
5816 printf "%2\$d %d %d\n", 12, 34; # will print "34 12 34\n"
5817 printf "%3\$d %d %d\n", 12, 34, 56; # will print "56 12 34\n"
5818 printf "%2\$*3\$d %d\n", 12, 34, 3; # will print " 34 12\n"
5822 If C<use locale> is in effect, and POSIX::setlocale() has been called,
5823 the character used for the decimal separator in formatted floating
5824 point numbers is affected by the LC_NUMERIC locale. See L<perllocale>
5828 X<sqrt> X<root> X<square root>
5832 Return the square root of EXPR. If EXPR is omitted, returns square
5833 root of C<$_>. Only works on non-negative operands, unless you've
5834 loaded the standard Math::Complex module.
5837 print sqrt(-2); # prints 1.4142135623731i
5840 X<srand> X<seed> X<randseed>
5844 Sets the random number seed for the C<rand> operator.
5846 The point of the function is to "seed" the C<rand> function so that
5847 C<rand> can produce a different sequence each time you run your
5850 If srand() is not called explicitly, it is called implicitly at the
5851 first use of the C<rand> operator. However, this was not the case in
5852 versions of Perl before 5.004, so if your script will run under older
5853 Perl versions, it should call C<srand>.
5855 Most programs won't even call srand() at all, except those that
5856 need a cryptographically-strong starting point rather than the
5857 generally acceptable default, which is based on time of day,
5858 process ID, and memory allocation, or the F</dev/urandom> device,
5861 You can call srand($seed) with the same $seed to reproduce the
5862 I<same> sequence from rand(), but this is usually reserved for
5863 generating predictable results for testing or debugging.
5864 Otherwise, don't call srand() more than once in your program.
5866 Do B<not> call srand() (i.e. without an argument) more than once in
5867 a script. The internal state of the random number generator should
5868 contain more entropy than can be provided by any seed, so calling
5869 srand() again actually I<loses> randomness.
5871 Most implementations of C<srand> take an integer and will silently
5872 truncate decimal numbers. This means C<srand(42)> will usually
5873 produce the same results as C<srand(42.1)>. To be safe, always pass
5874 C<srand> an integer.
5876 In versions of Perl prior to 5.004 the default seed was just the
5877 current C<time>. This isn't a particularly good seed, so many old
5878 programs supply their own seed value (often C<time ^ $$> or C<time ^
5879 ($$ + ($$ << 15))>), but that isn't necessary any more.
5881 For cryptographic purposes, however, you need something much more random
5882 than the default seed. Checksumming the compressed output of one or more
5883 rapidly changing operating system status programs is the usual method. For
5886 srand (time ^ $$ ^ unpack "%L*", `ps axww | gzip -f`);
5888 If you're particularly concerned with this, see the C<Math::TrulyRandom>
5891 Frequently called programs (like CGI scripts) that simply use
5895 for a seed can fall prey to the mathematical property that
5899 one-third of the time. So don't do that.
5901 =item stat FILEHANDLE
5902 X<stat> X<file, status> X<ctime>
5906 =item stat DIRHANDLE
5910 Returns a 13-element list giving the status info for a file, either
5911 the file opened via FILEHANDLE or DIRHANDLE, or named by EXPR. If EXPR is
5912 omitted, it stats C<$_>. Returns a null list if the stat fails. Typically
5915 ($dev,$ino,$mode,$nlink,$uid,$gid,$rdev,$size,
5916 $atime,$mtime,$ctime,$blksize,$blocks)
5919 Not all fields are supported on all filesystem types. Here are the
5920 meanings of the fields:
5922 0 dev device number of filesystem
5924 2 mode file mode (type and permissions)
5925 3 nlink number of (hard) links to the file
5926 4 uid numeric user ID of file's owner
5927 5 gid numeric group ID of file's owner
5928 6 rdev the device identifier (special files only)
5929 7 size total size of file, in bytes
5930 8 atime last access time in seconds since the epoch
5931 9 mtime last modify time in seconds since the epoch
5932 10 ctime inode change time in seconds since the epoch (*)
5933 11 blksize preferred block size for file system I/O
5934 12 blocks actual number of blocks allocated
5936 (The epoch was at 00:00 January 1, 1970 GMT.)
5938 (*) Not all fields are supported on all filesystem types. Notably, the
5939 ctime field is non-portable. In particular, you cannot expect it to be a
5940 "creation time", see L<perlport/"Files and Filesystems"> for details.
5942 If C<stat> is passed the special filehandle consisting of an underline, no
5943 stat is done, but the current contents of the stat structure from the
5944 last C<stat>, C<lstat>, or filetest are returned. Example:
5946 if (-x $file && (($d) = stat(_)) && $d < 0) {
5947 print "$file is executable NFS file\n";
5950 (This works on machines only for which the device number is negative
5953 Because the mode contains both the file type and its permissions, you
5954 should mask off the file type portion and (s)printf using a C<"%o">
5955 if you want to see the real permissions.
5957 $mode = (stat($filename))[2];
5958 printf "Permissions are %04o\n", $mode & 07777;
5960 In scalar context, C<stat> returns a boolean value indicating success
5961 or failure, and, if successful, sets the information associated with
5962 the special filehandle C<_>.
5964 The L<File::stat> module provides a convenient, by-name access mechanism:
5967 $sb = stat($filename);
5968 printf "File is %s, size is %s, perm %04o, mtime %s\n",
5969 $filename, $sb->size, $sb->mode & 07777,
5970 scalar localtime $sb->mtime;
5972 You can import symbolic mode constants (C<S_IF*>) and functions
5973 (C<S_IS*>) from the Fcntl module:
5977 $mode = (stat($filename))[2];
5979 $user_rwx = ($mode & S_IRWXU) >> 6;
5980 $group_read = ($mode & S_IRGRP) >> 3;
5981 $other_execute = $mode & S_IXOTH;
5983 printf "Permissions are %04o\n", S_IMODE($mode), "\n";
5985 $is_setuid = $mode & S_ISUID;
5986 $is_directory = S_ISDIR($mode);
5988 You could write the last two using the C<-u> and C<-d> operators.
5989 The commonly available C<S_IF*> constants are
5991 # Permissions: read, write, execute, for user, group, others.
5993 S_IRWXU S_IRUSR S_IWUSR S_IXUSR
5994 S_IRWXG S_IRGRP S_IWGRP S_IXGRP
5995 S_IRWXO S_IROTH S_IWOTH S_IXOTH
5997 # Setuid/Setgid/Stickiness/SaveText.
5998 # Note that the exact meaning of these is system dependent.
6000 S_ISUID S_ISGID S_ISVTX S_ISTXT
6002 # File types. Not necessarily all are available on your system.
6004 S_IFREG S_IFDIR S_IFLNK S_IFBLK S_IFCHR S_IFIFO S_IFSOCK S_IFWHT S_ENFMT
6006 # The following are compatibility aliases for S_IRUSR, S_IWUSR, S_IXUSR.
6008 S_IREAD S_IWRITE S_IEXEC
6010 and the C<S_IF*> functions are
6012 S_IMODE($mode) the part of $mode containing the permission bits
6013 and the setuid/setgid/sticky bits
6015 S_IFMT($mode) the part of $mode containing the file type
6016 which can be bit-anded with e.g. S_IFREG
6017 or with the following functions
6019 # The operators -f, -d, -l, -b, -c, -p, and -S.
6021 S_ISREG($mode) S_ISDIR($mode) S_ISLNK($mode)
6022 S_ISBLK($mode) S_ISCHR($mode) S_ISFIFO($mode) S_ISSOCK($mode)
6024 # No direct -X operator counterpart, but for the first one
6025 # the -g operator is often equivalent. The ENFMT stands for
6026 # record flocking enforcement, a platform-dependent feature.
6028 S_ISENFMT($mode) S_ISWHT($mode)
6030 See your native chmod(2) and stat(2) documentation for more details
6031 about the C<S_*> constants. To get status info for a symbolic link
6032 instead of the target file behind the link, use the C<lstat> function.
6037 =item state TYPE EXPR
6039 =item state EXPR : ATTRS
6041 =item state TYPE EXPR : ATTRS
6043 C<state> declares a lexically scoped variable, just like C<my> does.
6044 However, those variables will never be reinitialized, contrary to
6045 lexical variables that are reinitialized each time their enclosing block
6048 C<state> variables are only enabled when the C<feature 'state'> pragma is
6049 in effect. See L<feature>.
6056 Takes extra time to study SCALAR (C<$_> if unspecified) in anticipation of
6057 doing many pattern matches on the string before it is next modified.
6058 This may or may not save time, depending on the nature and number of
6059 patterns you are searching on, and on the distribution of character
6060 frequencies in the string to be searched--you probably want to compare
6061 run times with and without it to see which runs faster. Those loops
6062 that scan for many short constant strings (including the constant
6063 parts of more complex patterns) will benefit most. You may have only
6064 one C<study> active at a time--if you study a different scalar the first
6065 is "unstudied". (The way C<study> works is this: a linked list of every
6066 character in the string to be searched is made, so we know, for
6067 example, where all the C<'k'> characters are. From each search string,
6068 the rarest character is selected, based on some static frequency tables
6069 constructed from some C programs and English text. Only those places
6070 that contain this "rarest" character are examined.)
6072 For example, here is a loop that inserts index producing entries
6073 before any line containing a certain pattern:
6077 print ".IX foo\n" if /\bfoo\b/;
6078 print ".IX bar\n" if /\bbar\b/;
6079 print ".IX blurfl\n" if /\bblurfl\b/;
6084 In searching for C</\bfoo\b/>, only those locations in C<$_> that contain C<f>
6085 will be looked at, because C<f> is rarer than C<o>. In general, this is
6086 a big win except in pathological cases. The only question is whether
6087 it saves you more time than it took to build the linked list in the
6090 Note that if you have to look for strings that you don't know till
6091 runtime, you can build an entire loop as a string and C<eval> that to
6092 avoid recompiling all your patterns all the time. Together with
6093 undefining C<$/> to input entire files as one record, this can be very
6094 fast, often faster than specialized programs like fgrep(1). The following
6095 scans a list of files (C<@files>) for a list of words (C<@words>), and prints
6096 out the names of those files that contain a match:
6098 $search = 'while (<>) { study;';
6099 foreach $word (@words) {
6100 $search .= "++\$seen{\$ARGV} if /\\b$word\\b/;\n";
6105 eval $search; # this screams
6106 $/ = "\n"; # put back to normal input delimiter
6107 foreach $file (sort keys(%seen)) {
6111 =item sub NAME BLOCK
6114 =item sub NAME (PROTO) BLOCK
6116 =item sub NAME : ATTRS BLOCK
6118 =item sub NAME (PROTO) : ATTRS BLOCK
6120 This is subroutine definition, not a real function I<per se>.
6121 Without a BLOCK it's just a forward declaration. Without a NAME,
6122 it's an anonymous function declaration, and does actually return
6123 a value: the CODE ref of the closure you just created.
6125 See L<perlsub> and L<perlref> for details about subroutines and
6126 references, and L<attributes> and L<Attribute::Handlers> for more
6127 information about attributes.
6129 =item substr EXPR,OFFSET,LENGTH,REPLACEMENT
6130 X<substr> X<substring> X<mid> X<left> X<right>
6132 =item substr EXPR,OFFSET,LENGTH
6134 =item substr EXPR,OFFSET
6136 Extracts a substring out of EXPR and returns it. First character is at
6137 offset C<0>, or whatever you've set C<$[> to (but don't do that).
6138 If OFFSET is negative (or more precisely, less than C<$[>), starts
6139 that far from the end of the string. If LENGTH is omitted, returns
6140 everything to the end of the string. If LENGTH is negative, leaves that
6141 many characters off the end of the string.
6143 my $s = "The black cat climbed the green tree";
6144 my $color = substr $s, 4, 5; # black
6145 my $middle = substr $s, 4, -11; # black cat climbed the
6146 my $end = substr $s, 14; # climbed the green tree
6147 my $tail = substr $s, -4; # tree
6148 my $z = substr $s, -4, 2; # tr
6150 You can use the substr() function as an lvalue, in which case EXPR
6151 must itself be an lvalue. If you assign something shorter than LENGTH,
6152 the string will shrink, and if you assign something longer than LENGTH,
6153 the string will grow to accommodate it. To keep the string the same
6154 length you may need to pad or chop your value using C<sprintf>.
6156 If OFFSET and LENGTH specify a substring that is partly outside the
6157 string, only the part within the string is returned. If the substring
6158 is beyond either end of the string, substr() returns the undefined
6159 value and produces a warning. When used as an lvalue, specifying a
6160 substring that is entirely outside the string is a fatal error.
6161 Here's an example showing the behavior for boundary cases:
6164 substr($name, 4) = 'dy'; # $name is now 'freddy'
6165 my $null = substr $name, 6, 2; # returns '' (no warning)
6166 my $oops = substr $name, 7; # returns undef, with warning
6167 substr($name, 7) = 'gap'; # fatal error
6169 An alternative to using substr() as an lvalue is to specify the
6170 replacement string as the 4th argument. This allows you to replace
6171 parts of the EXPR and return what was there before in one operation,
6172 just as you can with splice().
6174 my $s = "The black cat climbed the green tree";
6175 my $z = substr $s, 14, 7, "jumped from"; # climbed
6176 # $s is now "The black cat jumped from the green tree"
6178 Note that the lvalue returned by the 3-arg version of substr() acts as
6179 a 'magic bullet'; each time it is assigned to, it remembers which part
6180 of the original string is being modified; for example:
6183 for (substr($x,1,2)) {
6184 $_ = 'a'; print $x,"\n"; # prints 1a4
6185 $_ = 'xyz'; print $x,"\n"; # prints 1xyz4
6187 $_ = 'pq'; print $x,"\n"; # prints 5pq9
6190 Prior to Perl version 5.9.1, the result of using an lvalue multiple times was
6193 =item symlink OLDFILE,NEWFILE
6194 X<symlink> X<link> X<symbolic link> X<link, symbolic>
6196 Creates a new filename symbolically linked to the old filename.
6197 Returns C<1> for success, C<0> otherwise. On systems that don't support
6198 symbolic links, produces a fatal error at run time. To check for that,
6201 $symlink_exists = eval { symlink("",""); 1 };
6203 =item syscall NUMBER, LIST
6204 X<syscall> X<system call>
6206 Calls the system call specified as the first element of the list,
6207 passing the remaining elements as arguments to the system call. If
6208 unimplemented, produces a fatal error. The arguments are interpreted
6209 as follows: if a given argument is numeric, the argument is passed as
6210 an int. If not, the pointer to the string value is passed. You are
6211 responsible to make sure a string is pre-extended long enough to
6212 receive any result that might be written into a string. You can't use a
6213 string literal (or other read-only string) as an argument to C<syscall>
6214 because Perl has to assume that any string pointer might be written
6216 integer arguments are not literals and have never been interpreted in a
6217 numeric context, you may need to add C<0> to them to force them to look
6218 like numbers. This emulates the C<syswrite> function (or vice versa):
6220 require 'syscall.ph'; # may need to run h2ph
6222 syscall(&SYS_write, fileno(STDOUT), $s, length $s);
6224 Note that Perl supports passing of up to only 14 arguments to your system call,
6225 which in practice should usually suffice.
6227 Syscall returns whatever value returned by the system call it calls.
6228 If the system call fails, C<syscall> returns C<-1> and sets C<$!> (errno).
6229 Note that some system calls can legitimately return C<-1>. The proper
6230 way to handle such calls is to assign C<$!=0;> before the call and
6231 check the value of C<$!> if syscall returns C<-1>.
6233 There's a problem with C<syscall(&SYS_pipe)>: it returns the file
6234 number of the read end of the pipe it creates. There is no way
6235 to retrieve the file number of the other end. You can avoid this
6236 problem by using C<pipe> instead.
6238 =item sysopen FILEHANDLE,FILENAME,MODE
6241 =item sysopen FILEHANDLE,FILENAME,MODE,PERMS
6243 Opens the file whose filename is given by FILENAME, and associates it
6244 with FILEHANDLE. If FILEHANDLE is an expression, its value is used as
6245 the name of the real filehandle wanted. This function calls the
6246 underlying operating system's C<open> function with the parameters
6247 FILENAME, MODE, PERMS.
6249 The possible values and flag bits of the MODE parameter are
6250 system-dependent; they are available via the standard module C<Fcntl>.
6251 See the documentation of your operating system's C<open> to see which
6252 values and flag bits are available. You may combine several flags
6253 using the C<|>-operator.
6255 Some of the most common values are C<O_RDONLY> for opening the file in
6256 read-only mode, C<O_WRONLY> for opening the file in write-only mode,
6257 and C<O_RDWR> for opening the file in read-write mode.
6258 X<O_RDONLY> X<O_RDWR> X<O_WRONLY>
6260 For historical reasons, some values work on almost every system
6261 supported by perl: zero means read-only, one means write-only, and two
6262 means read/write. We know that these values do I<not> work under
6263 OS/390 & VM/ESA Unix and on the Macintosh; you probably don't want to
6264 use them in new code.
6266 If the file named by FILENAME does not exist and the C<open> call creates
6267 it (typically because MODE includes the C<O_CREAT> flag), then the value of
6268 PERMS specifies the permissions of the newly created file. If you omit
6269 the PERMS argument to C<sysopen>, Perl uses the octal value C<0666>.
6270 These permission values need to be in octal, and are modified by your
6271 process's current C<umask>.
6274 In many systems the C<O_EXCL> flag is available for opening files in
6275 exclusive mode. This is B<not> locking: exclusiveness means here that
6276 if the file already exists, sysopen() fails. C<O_EXCL> may not work
6277 on network filesystems, and has no effect unless the C<O_CREAT> flag
6278 is set as well. Setting C<O_CREAT|O_EXCL> prevents the file from
6279 being opened if it is a symbolic link. It does not protect against
6280 symbolic links in the file's path.
6283 Sometimes you may want to truncate an already-existing file. This
6284 can be done using the C<O_TRUNC> flag. The behavior of
6285 C<O_TRUNC> with C<O_RDONLY> is undefined.
6288 You should seldom if ever use C<0644> as argument to C<sysopen>, because
6289 that takes away the user's option to have a more permissive umask.
6290 Better to omit it. See the perlfunc(1) entry on C<umask> for more
6293 Note that C<sysopen> depends on the fdopen() C library function.
6294 On many UNIX systems, fdopen() is known to fail when file descriptors
6295 exceed a certain value, typically 255. If you need more file
6296 descriptors than that, consider rebuilding Perl to use the C<sfio>
6297 library, or perhaps using the POSIX::open() function.
6299 See L<perlopentut> for a kinder, gentler explanation of opening files.
6301 =item sysread FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH,OFFSET
6304 =item sysread FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH
6306 Attempts to read LENGTH bytes of data into variable SCALAR from the
6307 specified FILEHANDLE, using the system call read(2). It bypasses
6308 buffered IO, so mixing this with other kinds of reads, C<print>,
6309 C<write>, C<seek>, C<tell>, or C<eof> can cause confusion because the
6310 perlio or stdio layers usually buffers data. Returns the number of
6311 bytes actually read, C<0> at end of file, or undef if there was an
6312 error (in the latter case C<$!> is also set). SCALAR will be grown or
6313 shrunk so that the last byte actually read is the last byte of the
6314 scalar after the read.
6316 An OFFSET may be specified to place the read data at some place in the
6317 string other than the beginning. A negative OFFSET specifies
6318 placement at that many characters counting backwards from the end of
6319 the string. A positive OFFSET greater than the length of SCALAR
6320 results in the string being padded to the required size with C<"\0">
6321 bytes before the result of the read is appended.
6323 There is no syseof() function, which is ok, since eof() doesn't work
6324 very well on device files (like ttys) anyway. Use sysread() and check
6325 for a return value for 0 to decide whether you're done.
6327 Note that if the filehandle has been marked as C<:utf8> Unicode
6328 characters are read instead of bytes (the LENGTH, OFFSET, and the
6329 return value of sysread() are in Unicode characters).
6330 The C<:encoding(...)> layer implicitly introduces the C<:utf8> layer.
6331 See L</binmode>, L</open>, and the C<open> pragma, L<open>.
6333 =item sysseek FILEHANDLE,POSITION,WHENCE
6336 Sets FILEHANDLE's system position in bytes using the system call
6337 lseek(2). FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value gives the name
6338 of the filehandle. The values for WHENCE are C<0> to set the new
6339 position to POSITION, C<1> to set the it to the current position plus
6340 POSITION, and C<2> to set it to EOF plus POSITION (typically
6343 Note the I<in bytes>: even if the filehandle has been set to operate
6344 on characters (for example by using the C<:encoding(utf8)> I/O layer),
6345 tell() will return byte offsets, not character offsets (because
6346 implementing that would render sysseek() very slow).
6348 sysseek() bypasses normal buffered IO, so mixing this with reads (other
6349 than C<sysread>, for example C<< <> >> or read()) C<print>, C<write>,
6350 C<seek>, C<tell>, or C<eof> may cause confusion.
6352 For WHENCE, you may also use the constants C<SEEK_SET>, C<SEEK_CUR>,
6353 and C<SEEK_END> (start of the file, current position, end of the file)
6354 from the Fcntl module. Use of the constants is also more portable
6355 than relying on 0, 1, and 2. For example to define a "systell" function:
6357 use Fcntl 'SEEK_CUR';
6358 sub systell { sysseek($_[0], 0, SEEK_CUR) }
6360 Returns the new position, or the undefined value on failure. A position
6361 of zero is returned as the string C<"0 but true">; thus C<sysseek> returns
6362 true on success and false on failure, yet you can still easily determine
6368 =item system PROGRAM LIST
6370 Does exactly the same thing as C<exec LIST>, except that a fork is
6371 done first, and the parent process waits for the child process to
6372 complete. Note that argument processing varies depending on the
6373 number of arguments. If there is more than one argument in LIST,
6374 or if LIST is an array with more than one value, starts the program
6375 given by the first element of the list with arguments given by the
6376 rest of the list. If there is only one scalar argument, the argument
6377 is checked for shell metacharacters, and if there are any, the
6378 entire argument is passed to the system's command shell for parsing
6379 (this is C</bin/sh -c> on Unix platforms, but varies on other
6380 platforms). If there are no shell metacharacters in the argument,
6381 it is split into words and passed directly to C<execvp>, which is
6384 Beginning with v5.6.0, Perl will attempt to flush all files opened for
6385 output before any operation that may do a fork, but this may not be
6386 supported on some platforms (see L<perlport>). To be safe, you may need
6387 to set C<$|> ($AUTOFLUSH in English) or call the C<autoflush()> method
6388 of C<IO::Handle> on any open handles.
6390 The return value is the exit status of the program as returned by the
6391 C<wait> call. To get the actual exit value, shift right by eight (see
6392 below). See also L</exec>. This is I<not> what you want to use to capture
6393 the output from a command, for that you should use merely backticks or
6394 C<qx//>, as described in L<perlop/"`STRING`">. Return value of -1
6395 indicates a failure to start the program or an error of the wait(2) system
6396 call (inspect $! for the reason).
6398 Like C<exec>, C<system> allows you to lie to a program about its name if
6399 you use the C<system PROGRAM LIST> syntax. Again, see L</exec>.
6401 Since C<SIGINT> and C<SIGQUIT> are ignored during the execution of
6402 C<system>, if you expect your program to terminate on receipt of these
6403 signals you will need to arrange to do so yourself based on the return
6406 @args = ("command", "arg1", "arg2");
6408 or die "system @args failed: $?"
6410 You can check all the failure possibilities by inspecting
6414 print "failed to execute: $!\n";
6417 printf "child died with signal %d, %s coredump\n",
6418 ($? & 127), ($? & 128) ? 'with' : 'without';
6421 printf "child exited with value %d\n", $? >> 8;
6424 Alternatively you might inspect the value of C<${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}>
6425 with the W*() calls of the POSIX extension.
6427 When the arguments get executed via the system shell, results
6428 and return codes will be subject to its quirks and capabilities.
6429 See L<perlop/"`STRING`"> and L</exec> for details.
6431 =item syswrite FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH,OFFSET
6434 =item syswrite FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH
6436 =item syswrite FILEHANDLE,SCALAR
6438 Attempts to write LENGTH bytes of data from variable SCALAR to the
6439 specified FILEHANDLE, using the system call write(2). If LENGTH is
6440 not specified, writes whole SCALAR. It bypasses buffered IO, so
6441 mixing this with reads (other than C<sysread())>, C<print>, C<write>,
6442 C<seek>, C<tell>, or C<eof> may cause confusion because the perlio and
6443 stdio layers usually buffers data. Returns the number of bytes
6444 actually written, or C<undef> if there was an error (in this case the
6445 errno variable C<$!> is also set). If the LENGTH is greater than the
6446 available data in the SCALAR after the OFFSET, only as much data as is
6447 available will be written.
6449 An OFFSET may be specified to write the data from some part of the
6450 string other than the beginning. A negative OFFSET specifies writing
6451 that many characters counting backwards from the end of the string.
6452 In the case the SCALAR is empty you can use OFFSET but only zero offset.
6454 Note that if the filehandle has been marked as C<:utf8>, Unicode
6455 characters are written instead of bytes (the LENGTH, OFFSET, and the
6456 return value of syswrite() are in UTF-8 encoded Unicode characters).
6457 The C<:encoding(...)> layer implicitly introduces the C<:utf8> layer.
6458 See L</binmode>, L</open>, and the C<open> pragma, L<open>.
6460 =item tell FILEHANDLE
6465 Returns the current position I<in bytes> for FILEHANDLE, or -1 on
6466 error. FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value gives the name of
6467 the actual filehandle. If FILEHANDLE is omitted, assumes the file
6470 Note the I<in bytes>: even if the filehandle has been set to
6471 operate on characters (for example by using the C<:encoding(utf8)> open
6472 layer), tell() will return byte offsets, not character offsets (because
6473 that would render seek() and tell() rather slow).
6475 The return value of tell() for the standard streams like the STDIN
6476 depends on the operating system: it may return -1 or something else.
6477 tell() on pipes, fifos, and sockets usually returns -1.
6479 There is no C<systell> function. Use C<sysseek(FH, 0, 1)> for that.
6481 Do not use tell() (or other buffered I/O operations) on a file handle
6482 that has been manipulated by sysread(), syswrite() or sysseek().
6483 Those functions ignore the buffering, while tell() does not.
6485 =item telldir DIRHANDLE
6488 Returns the current position of the C<readdir> routines on DIRHANDLE.
6489 Value may be given to C<seekdir> to access a particular location in a
6490 directory. C<telldir> has the same caveats about possible directory
6491 compaction as the corresponding system library routine.
6493 =item tie VARIABLE,CLASSNAME,LIST
6496 This function binds a variable to a package class that will provide the
6497 implementation for the variable. VARIABLE is the name of the variable
6498 to be enchanted. CLASSNAME is the name of a class implementing objects
6499 of correct type. Any additional arguments are passed to the C<new>
6500 method of the class (meaning C<TIESCALAR>, C<TIEHANDLE>, C<TIEARRAY>,
6501 or C<TIEHASH>). Typically these are arguments such as might be passed
6502 to the C<dbm_open()> function of C. The object returned by the C<new>
6503 method is also returned by the C<tie> function, which would be useful
6504 if you want to access other methods in CLASSNAME.
6506 Note that functions such as C<keys> and C<values> may return huge lists
6507 when used on large objects, like DBM files. You may prefer to use the
6508 C<each> function to iterate over such. Example:
6510 # print out history file offsets
6512 tie(%HIST, 'NDBM_File', '/usr/lib/news/history', 1, 0);
6513 while (($key,$val) = each %HIST) {
6514 print $key, ' = ', unpack('L',$val), "\n";
6518 A class implementing a hash should have the following methods:
6520 TIEHASH classname, LIST
6522 STORE this, key, value
6527 NEXTKEY this, lastkey
6532 A class implementing an ordinary array should have the following methods:
6534 TIEARRAY classname, LIST
6536 STORE this, key, value
6538 STORESIZE this, count
6544 SPLICE this, offset, length, LIST
6549 A class implementing a file handle should have the following methods:
6551 TIEHANDLE classname, LIST
6552 READ this, scalar, length, offset
6555 WRITE this, scalar, length, offset
6557 PRINTF this, format, LIST
6561 SEEK this, position, whence
6563 OPEN this, mode, LIST
6568 A class implementing a scalar should have the following methods:
6570 TIESCALAR classname, LIST
6576 Not all methods indicated above need be implemented. See L<perltie>,
6577 L<Tie::Hash>, L<Tie::Array>, L<Tie::Scalar>, and L<Tie::Handle>.
6579 Unlike C<dbmopen>, the C<tie> function will not use or require a module
6580 for you--you need to do that explicitly yourself. See L<DB_File>
6581 or the F<Config> module for interesting C<tie> implementations.
6583 For further details see L<perltie>, L<"tied VARIABLE">.
6588 Returns a reference to the object underlying VARIABLE (the same value
6589 that was originally returned by the C<tie> call that bound the variable
6590 to a package.) Returns the undefined value if VARIABLE isn't tied to a
6596 Returns the number of non-leap seconds since whatever time the system
6597 considers to be the epoch, suitable for feeding to C<gmtime> and
6598 C<localtime>. On most systems the epoch is 00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970;
6599 a prominent exception being Mac OS Classic which uses 00:00:00, January 1,
6600 1904 in the current local time zone for its epoch.
6602 For measuring time in better granularity than one second,
6603 you may use either the L<Time::HiRes> module (from CPAN, and starting from
6604 Perl 5.8 part of the standard distribution), or if you have
6605 gettimeofday(2), you may be able to use the C<syscall> interface of Perl.
6606 See L<perlfaq8> for details.
6608 For date and time processing look at the many related modules on CPAN.
6609 For a comprehensive date and time representation look at the
6615 Returns a four-element list giving the user and system times, in
6616 seconds, for this process and the children of this process.
6618 ($user,$system,$cuser,$csystem) = times;
6620 In scalar context, C<times> returns C<$user>.
6622 Note that times for children are included only after they terminate.
6626 The transliteration operator. Same as C<y///>. See L<perlop>.
6628 =item truncate FILEHANDLE,LENGTH
6631 =item truncate EXPR,LENGTH
6633 Truncates the file opened on FILEHANDLE, or named by EXPR, to the
6634 specified length. Produces a fatal error if truncate isn't implemented
6635 on your system. Returns true if successful, the undefined value
6638 The behavior is undefined if LENGTH is greater than the length of the
6641 The position in the file of FILEHANDLE is left unchanged. You may want to
6642 call L<seek> before writing to the file.
6645 X<uc> X<uppercase> X<toupper>
6649 Returns an uppercased version of EXPR. This is the internal function
6650 implementing the C<\U> escape in double-quoted strings. Respects
6651 current LC_CTYPE locale if C<use locale> in force. See L<perllocale>
6652 and L<perlunicode> for more details about locale and Unicode support.
6653 It does not attempt to do titlecase mapping on initial letters. See
6654 C<ucfirst> for that.
6656 If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
6659 X<ucfirst> X<uppercase>
6663 Returns the value of EXPR with the first character in uppercase
6664 (titlecase in Unicode). This is the internal function implementing
6665 the C<\u> escape in double-quoted strings. Respects current LC_CTYPE
6666 locale if C<use locale> in force. See L<perllocale> and L<perlunicode>
6667 for more details about locale and Unicode support.
6669 If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
6676 Sets the umask for the process to EXPR and returns the previous value.
6677 If EXPR is omitted, merely returns the current umask.
6679 The Unix permission C<rwxr-x---> is represented as three sets of three
6680 bits, or three octal digits: C<0750> (the leading 0 indicates octal
6681 and isn't one of the digits). The C<umask> value is such a number
6682 representing disabled permissions bits. The permission (or "mode")
6683 values you pass C<mkdir> or C<sysopen> are modified by your umask, so
6684 even if you tell C<sysopen> to create a file with permissions C<0777>,
6685 if your umask is C<0022> then the file will actually be created with
6686 permissions C<0755>. If your C<umask> were C<0027> (group can't
6687 write; others can't read, write, or execute), then passing
6688 C<sysopen> C<0666> would create a file with mode C<0640> (C<0666 &~
6691 Here's some advice: supply a creation mode of C<0666> for regular
6692 files (in C<sysopen>) and one of C<0777> for directories (in
6693 C<mkdir>) and executable files. This gives users the freedom of
6694 choice: if they want protected files, they might choose process umasks
6695 of C<022>, C<027>, or even the particularly antisocial mask of C<077>.
6696 Programs should rarely if ever make policy decisions better left to
6697 the user. The exception to this is when writing files that should be
6698 kept private: mail files, web browser cookies, I<.rhosts> files, and
6701 If umask(2) is not implemented on your system and you are trying to
6702 restrict access for I<yourself> (i.e., (EXPR & 0700) > 0), produces a
6703 fatal error at run time. If umask(2) is not implemented and you are
6704 not trying to restrict access for yourself, returns C<undef>.
6706 Remember that a umask is a number, usually given in octal; it is I<not> a
6707 string of octal digits. See also L</oct>, if all you have is a string.
6710 X<undef> X<undefine>
6714 Undefines the value of EXPR, which must be an lvalue. Use only on a
6715 scalar value, an array (using C<@>), a hash (using C<%>), a subroutine
6716 (using C<&>), or a typeglob (using C<*>). (Saying C<undef $hash{$key}>
6717 will probably not do what you expect on most predefined variables or
6718 DBM list values, so don't do that; see L<delete>.) Always returns the
6719 undefined value. You can omit the EXPR, in which case nothing is
6720 undefined, but you still get an undefined value that you could, for
6721 instance, return from a subroutine, assign to a variable or pass as a
6722 parameter. Examples:
6725 undef $bar{'blurfl'}; # Compare to: delete $bar{'blurfl'};
6729 undef *xyz; # destroys $xyz, @xyz, %xyz, &xyz, etc.
6730 return (wantarray ? (undef, $errmsg) : undef) if $they_blew_it;
6731 select undef, undef, undef, 0.25;
6732 ($a, $b, undef, $c) = &foo; # Ignore third value returned
6734 Note that this is a unary operator, not a list operator.
6737 X<unlink> X<delete> X<remove> X<rm> X<del>
6741 Deletes a list of files. Returns the number of files successfully
6744 $cnt = unlink 'a', 'b', 'c';
6748 Note: C<unlink> will not attempt to delete directories unless you are superuser
6749 and the B<-U> flag is supplied to Perl. Even if these conditions are
6750 met, be warned that unlinking a directory can inflict damage on your
6751 filesystem. Finally, using C<unlink> on directories is not supported on
6752 many operating systems. Use C<rmdir> instead.
6754 If LIST is omitted, uses C<$_>.
6756 =item unpack TEMPLATE,EXPR
6759 =item unpack TEMPLATE
6761 C<unpack> does the reverse of C<pack>: it takes a string
6762 and expands it out into a list of values.
6763 (In scalar context, it returns merely the first value produced.)
6765 If EXPR is omitted, unpacks the C<$_> string.
6767 The string is broken into chunks described by the TEMPLATE. Each chunk
6768 is converted separately to a value. Typically, either the string is a result
6769 of C<pack>, or the characters of the string represent a C structure of some
6772 The TEMPLATE has the same format as in the C<pack> function.
6773 Here's a subroutine that does substring:
6776 my($what,$where,$howmuch) = @_;
6777 unpack("x$where a$howmuch", $what);
6782 sub ordinal { unpack("W",$_[0]); } # same as ord()
6784 In addition to fields allowed in pack(), you may prefix a field with
6785 a %<number> to indicate that
6786 you want a <number>-bit checksum of the items instead of the items
6787 themselves. Default is a 16-bit checksum. Checksum is calculated by
6788 summing numeric values of expanded values (for string fields the sum of
6789 C<ord($char)> is taken, for bit fields the sum of zeroes and ones).
6791 For example, the following
6792 computes the same number as the System V sum program:
6796 unpack("%32W*",<>) % 65535;
6799 The following efficiently counts the number of set bits in a bit vector:
6801 $setbits = unpack("%32b*", $selectmask);
6803 The C<p> and C<P> formats should be used with care. Since Perl
6804 has no way of checking whether the value passed to C<unpack()>
6805 corresponds to a valid memory location, passing a pointer value that's
6806 not known to be valid is likely to have disastrous consequences.
6808 If there are more pack codes or if the repeat count of a field or a group
6809 is larger than what the remainder of the input string allows, the result
6810 is not well defined: in some cases, the repeat count is decreased, or
6811 C<unpack()> will produce null strings or zeroes, or terminate with an
6812 error. If the input string is longer than one described by the TEMPLATE,
6813 the rest is ignored.
6815 See L</pack> for more examples and notes.
6817 =item untie VARIABLE
6820 Breaks the binding between a variable and a package. (See C<tie>.)
6821 Has no effect if the variable is not tied.
6823 =item unshift ARRAY,LIST
6826 Does the opposite of a C<shift>. Or the opposite of a C<push>,
6827 depending on how you look at it. Prepends list to the front of the
6828 array, and returns the new number of elements in the array.
6830 unshift(@ARGV, '-e') unless $ARGV[0] =~ /^-/;
6832 Note the LIST is prepended whole, not one element at a time, so the
6833 prepended elements stay in the same order. Use C<reverse> to do the
6836 =item use Module VERSION LIST
6837 X<use> X<module> X<import>
6839 =item use Module VERSION
6841 =item use Module LIST
6847 Imports some semantics into the current package from the named module,
6848 generally by aliasing certain subroutine or variable names into your
6849 package. It is exactly equivalent to
6851 BEGIN { require Module; Module->import( LIST ); }
6853 except that Module I<must> be a bareword.
6855 In the peculiar C<use VERSION> form, VERSION may be either a numeric
6856 argument such as 5.006, which will be compared to C<$]>, or a literal of
6857 the form v5.6.1, which will be compared to C<$^V> (aka $PERL_VERSION). A
6858 fatal error is produced if VERSION is greater than the version of the
6859 current Perl interpreter; Perl will not attempt to parse the rest of the
6860 file. Compare with L</require>, which can do a similar check at run time.
6861 Symmetrically, C<no VERSION> allows you to specify that you want a version
6862 of perl older than the specified one.
6864 Specifying VERSION as a literal of the form v5.6.1 should generally be
6865 avoided, because it leads to misleading error messages under earlier
6866 versions of Perl that do not support this syntax. The equivalent numeric
6867 version should be used instead.
6869 Alternatively, you can use a numeric version C<use 5.006> followed by a
6870 v-string version like C<use v5.10.1>, to avoid the unintuitive C<use
6871 5.010_001>. (older perl versions fail gracefully at the first C<use>,
6872 later perl versions understand the v-string syntax in the second).
6874 use v5.6.1; # compile time version check
6876 use 5.006_001; # ditto; preferred for backwards compatibility
6877 use 5.006; use 5.6.1; # ditto, for compatibility and readability
6879 This is often useful if you need to check the current Perl version before
6880 C<use>ing library modules that have changed in incompatible ways from
6881 older versions of Perl. (We try not to do this more than we have to.)
6883 Also, if the specified perl version is greater than or equal to 5.9.5,
6884 C<use VERSION> will also load the C<feature> pragma and enable all
6885 features available in the requested version. See L<feature>.
6887 The C<BEGIN> forces the C<require> and C<import> to happen at compile time. The
6888 C<require> makes sure the module is loaded into memory if it hasn't been
6889 yet. The C<import> is not a builtin--it's just an ordinary static method
6890 call into the C<Module> package to tell the module to import the list of
6891 features back into the current package. The module can implement its
6892 C<import> method any way it likes, though most modules just choose to
6893 derive their C<import> method via inheritance from the C<Exporter> class that
6894 is defined in the C<Exporter> module. See L<Exporter>. If no C<import>
6895 method can be found then the call is skipped, even if there is an AUTOLOAD
6898 If you do not want to call the package's C<import> method (for instance,
6899 to stop your namespace from being altered), explicitly supply the empty list:
6903 That is exactly equivalent to
6905 BEGIN { require Module }
6907 If the VERSION argument is present between Module and LIST, then the
6908 C<use> will call the VERSION method in class Module with the given
6909 version as an argument. The default VERSION method, inherited from
6910 the UNIVERSAL class, croaks if the given version is larger than the
6911 value of the variable C<$Module::VERSION>.
6913 Again, there is a distinction between omitting LIST (C<import> called
6914 with no arguments) and an explicit empty LIST C<()> (C<import> not
6915 called). Note that there is no comma after VERSION!
6917 Because this is a wide-open interface, pragmas (compiler directives)
6918 are also implemented this way. Currently implemented pragmas are:
6923 use sigtrap qw(SEGV BUS);
6924 use strict qw(subs vars refs);
6925 use subs qw(afunc blurfl);
6926 use warnings qw(all);
6927 use sort qw(stable _quicksort _mergesort);
6929 Some of these pseudo-modules import semantics into the current
6930 block scope (like C<strict> or C<integer>, unlike ordinary modules,
6931 which import symbols into the current package (which are effective
6932 through the end of the file).
6934 There's a corresponding C<no> command that unimports meanings imported
6935 by C<use>, i.e., it calls C<unimport Module LIST> instead of C<import>.
6936 It behaves exactly as C<import> does with respect to VERSION, an
6937 omitted LIST, empty LIST, or no unimport method being found.
6943 See L<perlmodlib> for a list of standard modules and pragmas. See L<perlrun>
6944 for the C<-M> and C<-m> command-line options to perl that give C<use>
6945 functionality from the command-line.
6950 Changes the access and modification times on each file of a list of
6951 files. The first two elements of the list must be the NUMERICAL access
6952 and modification times, in that order. Returns the number of files
6953 successfully changed. The inode change time of each file is set
6954 to the current time. For example, this code has the same effect as the
6955 Unix touch(1) command when the files I<already exist> and belong to
6956 the user running the program:
6959 $atime = $mtime = time;
6960 utime $atime, $mtime, @ARGV;
6962 Since perl 5.7.2, if the first two elements of the list are C<undef>, then
6963 the utime(2) function in the C library will be called with a null second
6964 argument. On most systems, this will set the file's access and
6965 modification times to the current time (i.e. equivalent to the example
6966 above) and will even work on other users' files where you have write
6969 utime undef, undef, @ARGV;
6971 Under NFS this will use the time of the NFS server, not the time of
6972 the local machine. If there is a time synchronization problem, the
6973 NFS server and local machine will have different times. The Unix
6974 touch(1) command will in fact normally use this form instead of the
6975 one shown in the first example.
6977 Note that only passing one of the first two elements as C<undef> will
6978 be equivalent of passing it as 0 and will not have the same effect as
6979 described when they are both C<undef>. This case will also trigger an
6980 uninitialized warning.
6982 On systems that support futimes, you might pass file handles among the
6983 files. On systems that don't support futimes, passing file handles
6984 produces a fatal error at run time. The file handles must be passed
6985 as globs or references to be recognized. Barewords are considered
6993 Returns a list consisting of all the values of the named hash, or the values
6994 of an array. (In a scalar context, returns the number of values.)
6996 The values are returned in an apparently random order. The actual
6997 random order is subject to change in future versions of perl, but it
6998 is guaranteed to be the same order as either the C<keys> or C<each>
6999 function would produce on the same (unmodified) hash. Since Perl
7000 5.8.1 the ordering is different even between different runs of Perl
7001 for security reasons (see L<perlsec/"Algorithmic Complexity Attacks">).
7003 As a side effect, calling values() resets the HASH or ARRAY's internal
7005 see L</each>. (In particular, calling values() in void context resets
7006 the iterator with no other overhead. Apart from resetting the iterator,
7007 C<values @array> in list context is no different to plain C<@array>.
7008 We recommend that you use void context C<keys @array> for this, but reasoned
7009 that it taking C<values @array> out would require more documentation than
7013 Note that the values are not copied, which means modifying them will
7014 modify the contents of the hash:
7016 for (values %hash) { s/foo/bar/g } # modifies %hash values
7017 for (@hash{keys %hash}) { s/foo/bar/g } # same
7019 See also C<keys>, C<each>, and C<sort>.
7021 =item vec EXPR,OFFSET,BITS
7022 X<vec> X<bit> X<bit vector>
7024 Treats the string in EXPR as a bit vector made up of elements of
7025 width BITS, and returns the value of the element specified by OFFSET
7026 as an unsigned integer. BITS therefore specifies the number of bits
7027 that are reserved for each element in the bit vector. This must
7028 be a power of two from 1 to 32 (or 64, if your platform supports
7031 If BITS is 8, "elements" coincide with bytes of the input string.
7033 If BITS is 16 or more, bytes of the input string are grouped into chunks
7034 of size BITS/8, and each group is converted to a number as with
7035 pack()/unpack() with big-endian formats C<n>/C<N> (and analogously
7036 for BITS==64). See L<"pack"> for details.
7038 If bits is 4 or less, the string is broken into bytes, then the bits
7039 of each byte are broken into 8/BITS groups. Bits of a byte are
7040 numbered in a little-endian-ish way, as in C<0x01>, C<0x02>,
7041 C<0x04>, C<0x08>, C<0x10>, C<0x20>, C<0x40>, C<0x80>. For example,
7042 breaking the single input byte C<chr(0x36)> into two groups gives a list
7043 C<(0x6, 0x3)>; breaking it into 4 groups gives C<(0x2, 0x1, 0x3, 0x0)>.
7045 C<vec> may also be assigned to, in which case parentheses are needed
7046 to give the expression the correct precedence as in
7048 vec($image, $max_x * $x + $y, 8) = 3;
7050 If the selected element is outside the string, the value 0 is returned.
7051 If an element off the end of the string is written to, Perl will first
7052 extend the string with sufficiently many zero bytes. It is an error
7053 to try to write off the beginning of the string (i.e. negative OFFSET).
7055 If the string happens to be encoded as UTF-8 internally (and thus has
7056 the UTF8 flag set), this is ignored by C<vec>, and it operates on the
7057 internal byte string, not the conceptual character string, even if you
7058 only have characters with values less than 256.
7060 Strings created with C<vec> can also be manipulated with the logical
7061 operators C<|>, C<&>, C<^>, and C<~>. These operators will assume a bit
7062 vector operation is desired when both operands are strings.
7063 See L<perlop/"Bitwise String Operators">.
7065 The following code will build up an ASCII string saying C<'PerlPerlPerl'>.
7066 The comments show the string after each step. Note that this code works
7067 in the same way on big-endian or little-endian machines.
7070 vec($foo, 0, 32) = 0x5065726C; # 'Perl'
7072 # $foo eq "Perl" eq "\x50\x65\x72\x6C", 32 bits
7073 print vec($foo, 0, 8); # prints 80 == 0x50 == ord('P')
7075 vec($foo, 2, 16) = 0x5065; # 'PerlPe'
7076 vec($foo, 3, 16) = 0x726C; # 'PerlPerl'
7077 vec($foo, 8, 8) = 0x50; # 'PerlPerlP'
7078 vec($foo, 9, 8) = 0x65; # 'PerlPerlPe'
7079 vec($foo, 20, 4) = 2; # 'PerlPerlPe' . "\x02"
7080 vec($foo, 21, 4) = 7; # 'PerlPerlPer'
7082 vec($foo, 45, 2) = 3; # 'PerlPerlPer' . "\x0c"
7083 vec($foo, 93, 1) = 1; # 'PerlPerlPer' . "\x2c"
7084 vec($foo, 94, 1) = 1; # 'PerlPerlPerl'
7087 To transform a bit vector into a string or list of 0's and 1's, use these:
7089 $bits = unpack("b*", $vector);
7090 @bits = split(//, unpack("b*", $vector));
7092 If you know the exact length in bits, it can be used in place of the C<*>.
7094 Here is an example to illustrate how the bits actually fall in place:
7100 unpack("V",$_) 01234567890123456789012345678901
7101 ------------------------------------------------------------------
7106 for ($shift=0; $shift < $width; ++$shift) {
7107 for ($off=0; $off < 32/$width; ++$off) {
7108 $str = pack("B*", "0"x32);
7109 $bits = (1<<$shift);
7110 vec($str, $off, $width) = $bits;
7111 $res = unpack("b*",$str);
7112 $val = unpack("V", $str);
7119 vec($_,@#,@#) = @<< == @######### @>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
7120 $off, $width, $bits, $val, $res
7124 Regardless of the machine architecture on which it is run, the above
7125 example should print the following table:
7128 unpack("V",$_) 01234567890123456789012345678901
7129 ------------------------------------------------------------------
7130 vec($_, 0, 1) = 1 == 1 10000000000000000000000000000000
7131 vec($_, 1, 1) = 1 == 2 01000000000000000000000000000000
7132 vec($_, 2, 1) = 1 == 4 00100000000000000000000000000000
7133 vec($_, 3, 1) = 1 == 8 00010000000000000000000000000000
7134 vec($_, 4, 1) = 1 == 16 00001000000000000000000000000000
7135 vec($_, 5, 1) = 1 == 32 00000100000000000000000000000000
7136 vec($_, 6, 1) = 1 == 64 00000010000000000000000000000000
7137 vec($_, 7, 1) = 1 == 128 00000001000000000000000000000000
7138 vec($_, 8, 1) = 1 == 256 00000000100000000000000000000000
7139 vec($_, 9, 1) = 1 == 512 00000000010000000000000000000000
7140 vec($_,10, 1) = 1 == 1024 00000000001000000000000000000000
7141 vec($_,11, 1) = 1 == 2048 00000000000100000000000000000000
7142 vec($_,12, 1) = 1 == 4096 00000000000010000000000000000000
7143 vec($_,13, 1) = 1 == 8192 00000000000001000000000000000000
7144 vec($_,14, 1) = 1 == 16384 00000000000000100000000000000000
7145 vec($_,15, 1) = 1 == 32768 00000000000000010000000000000000
7146 vec($_,16, 1) = 1 == 65536 00000000000000001000000000000000
7147 vec($_,17, 1) = 1 == 131072 00000000000000000100000000000000
7148 vec($_,18, 1) = 1 == 262144 00000000000000000010000000000000
7149 vec($_,19, 1) = 1 == 524288 00000000000000000001000000000000
7150 vec($_,20, 1) = 1 == 1048576 00000000000000000000100000000000
7151 vec($_,21, 1) = 1 == 2097152 00000000000000000000010000000000
7152 vec($_,22, 1) = 1 == 4194304 00000000000000000000001000000000
7153 vec($_,23, 1) = 1 == 8388608 00000000000000000000000100000000
7154 vec($_,24, 1) = 1 == 16777216 00000000000000000000000010000000
7155 vec($_,25, 1) = 1 == 33554432 00000000000000000000000001000000
7156 vec($_,26, 1) = 1 == 67108864 00000000000000000000000000100000
7157 vec($_,27, 1) = 1 == 134217728 00000000000000000000000000010000
7158 vec($_,28, 1) = 1 == 268435456 00000000000000000000000000001000
7159 vec($_,29, 1) = 1 == 536870912 00000000000000000000000000000100
7160 vec($_,30, 1) = 1 == 1073741824 00000000000000000000000000000010
7161 vec($_,31, 1) = 1 == 2147483648 00000000000000000000000000000001
7162 vec($_, 0, 2) = 1 == 1 10000000000000000000000000000000
7163 vec($_, 1, 2) = 1 == 4 00100000000000000000000000000000
7164 vec($_, 2, 2) = 1 == 16 00001000000000000000000000000000
7165 vec($_, 3, 2) = 1 == 64 00000010000000000000000000000000
7166 vec($_, 4, 2) = 1 == 256 00000000100000000000000000000000
7167 vec($_, 5, 2) = 1 == 1024 00000000001000000000000000000000
7168 vec($_, 6, 2) = 1 == 4096 00000000000010000000000000000000
7169 vec($_, 7, 2) = 1 == 16384 00000000000000100000000000000000
7170 vec($_, 8, 2) = 1 == 65536 00000000000000001000000000000000
7171 vec($_, 9, 2) = 1 == 262144 00000000000000000010000000000000
7172 vec($_,10, 2) = 1 == 1048576 00000000000000000000100000000000
7173 vec($_,11, 2) = 1 == 4194304 00000000000000000000001000000000
7174 vec($_,12, 2) = 1 == 16777216 00000000000000000000000010000000
7175 vec($_,13, 2) = 1 == 67108864 00000000000000000000000000100000
7176 vec($_,14, 2) = 1 == 268435456 00000000000000000000000000001000
7177 vec($_,15, 2) = 1 == 1073741824 00000000000000000000000000000010
7178 vec($_, 0, 2) = 2 == 2 01000000000000000000000000000000
7179 vec($_, 1, 2) = 2 == 8 00010000000000000000000000000000
7180 vec($_, 2, 2) = 2 == 32 00000100000000000000000000000000
7181 vec($_, 3, 2) = 2 == 128 00000001000000000000000000000000
7182 vec($_, 4, 2) = 2 == 512 00000000010000000000000000000000
7183 vec($_, 5, 2) = 2 == 2048 00000000000100000000000000000000
7184 vec($_, 6, 2) = 2 == 8192 00000000000001000000000000000000
7185 vec($_, 7, 2) = 2 == 32768 00000000000000010000000000000000
7186 vec($_, 8, 2) = 2 == 131072 00000000000000000100000000000000
7187 vec($_, 9, 2) = 2 == 524288 00000000000000000001000000000000
7188 vec($_,10, 2) = 2 == 2097152 00000000000000000000010000000000
7189 vec($_,11, 2) = 2 == 8388608 00000000000000000000000100000000
7190 vec($_,12, 2) = 2 == 33554432 00000000000000000000000001000000
7191 vec($_,13, 2) = 2 == 134217728 00000000000000000000000000010000
7192 vec($_,14, 2) = 2 == 536870912 00000000000000000000000000000100
7193 vec($_,15, 2) = 2 == 2147483648 00000000000000000000000000000001
7194 vec($_, 0, 4) = 1 == 1 10000000000000000000000000000000
7195 vec($_, 1, 4) = 1 == 16 00001000000000000000000000000000
7196 vec($_, 2, 4) = 1 == 256 00000000100000000000000000000000
7197 vec($_, 3, 4) = 1 == 4096 00000000000010000000000000000000
7198 vec($_, 4, 4) = 1 == 65536 00000000000000001000000000000000
7199 vec($_, 5, 4) = 1 == 1048576 00000000000000000000100000000000
7200 vec($_, 6, 4) = 1 == 16777216 00000000000000000000000010000000
7201 vec($_, 7, 4) = 1 == 268435456 00000000000000000000000000001000
7202 vec($_, 0, 4) = 2 == 2 01000000000000000000000000000000
7203 vec($_, 1, 4) = 2 == 32 00000100000000000000000000000000
7204 vec($_, 2, 4) = 2 == 512 00000000010000000000000000000000
7205 vec($_, 3, 4) = 2 == 8192 00000000000001000000000000000000
7206 vec($_, 4, 4) = 2 == 131072 00000000000000000100000000000000
7207 vec($_, 5, 4) = 2 == 2097152 00000000000000000000010000000000
7208 vec($_, 6, 4) = 2 == 33554432 00000000000000000000000001000000
7209 vec($_, 7, 4) = 2 == 536870912 00000000000000000000000000000100
7210 vec($_, 0, 4) = 4 == 4 00100000000000000000000000000000
7211 vec($_, 1, 4) = 4 == 64 00000010000000000000000000000000
7212 vec($_, 2, 4) = 4 == 1024 00000000001000000000000000000000
7213 vec($_, 3, 4) = 4 == 16384 00000000000000100000000000000000
7214 vec($_, 4, 4) = 4 == 262144 00000000000000000010000000000000
7215 vec($_, 5, 4) = 4 == 4194304 00000000000000000000001000000000
7216 vec($_, 6, 4) = 4 == 67108864 00000000000000000000000000100000
7217 vec($_, 7, 4) = 4 == 1073741824 00000000000000000000000000000010
7218 vec($_, 0, 4) = 8 == 8 00010000000000000000000000000000
7219 vec($_, 1, 4) = 8 == 128 00000001000000000000000000000000
7220 vec($_, 2, 4) = 8 == 2048 00000000000100000000000000000000
7221 vec($_, 3, 4) = 8 == 32768 00000000000000010000000000000000
7222 vec($_, 4, 4) = 8 == 524288 00000000000000000001000000000000
7223 vec($_, 5, 4) = 8 == 8388608 00000000000000000000000100000000
7224 vec($_, 6, 4) = 8 == 134217728 00000000000000000000000000010000
7225 vec($_, 7, 4) = 8 == 2147483648 00000000000000000000000000000001
7226 vec($_, 0, 8) = 1 == 1 10000000000000000000000000000000
7227 vec($_, 1, 8) = 1 == 256 00000000100000000000000000000000
7228 vec($_, 2, 8) = 1 == 65536 00000000000000001000000000000000
7229 vec($_, 3, 8) = 1 == 16777216 00000000000000000000000010000000
7230 vec($_, 0, 8) = 2 == 2 01000000000000000000000000000000
7231 vec($_, 1, 8) = 2 == 512 00000000010000000000000000000000
7232 vec($_, 2, 8) = 2 == 131072 00000000000000000100000000000000
7233 vec($_, 3, 8) = 2 == 33554432 00000000000000000000000001000000
7234 vec($_, 0, 8) = 4 == 4 00100000000000000000000000000000
7235 vec($_, 1, 8) = 4 == 1024 00000000001000000000000000000000
7236 vec($_, 2, 8) = 4 == 262144 00000000000000000010000000000000
7237 vec($_, 3, 8) = 4 == 67108864 00000000000000000000000000100000
7238 vec($_, 0, 8) = 8 == 8 00010000000000000000000000000000
7239 vec($_, 1, 8) = 8 == 2048 00000000000100000000000000000000
7240 vec($_, 2, 8) = 8 == 524288 00000000000000000001000000000000
7241 vec($_, 3, 8) = 8 == 134217728 00000000000000000000000000010000
7242 vec($_, 0, 8) = 16 == 16 00001000000000000000000000000000
7243 vec($_, 1, 8) = 16 == 4096 00000000000010000000000000000000
7244 vec($_, 2, 8) = 16 == 1048576 00000000000000000000100000000000
7245 vec($_, 3, 8) = 16 == 268435456 00000000000000000000000000001000
7246 vec($_, 0, 8) = 32 == 32 00000100000000000000000000000000
7247 vec($_, 1, 8) = 32 == 8192 00000000000001000000000000000000
7248 vec($_, 2, 8) = 32 == 2097152 00000000000000000000010000000000
7249 vec($_, 3, 8) = 32 == 536870912 00000000000000000000000000000100
7250 vec($_, 0, 8) = 64 == 64 00000010000000000000000000000000
7251 vec($_, 1, 8) = 64 == 16384 00000000000000100000000000000000
7252 vec($_, 2, 8) = 64 == 4194304 00000000000000000000001000000000
7253 vec($_, 3, 8) = 64 == 1073741824 00000000000000000000000000000010
7254 vec($_, 0, 8) = 128 == 128 00000001000000000000000000000000
7255 vec($_, 1, 8) = 128 == 32768 00000000000000010000000000000000
7256 vec($_, 2, 8) = 128 == 8388608 00000000000000000000000100000000
7257 vec($_, 3, 8) = 128 == 2147483648 00000000000000000000000000000001
7262 Behaves like the wait(2) system call on your system: it waits for a child
7263 process to terminate and returns the pid of the deceased process, or
7264 C<-1> if there are no child processes. The status is returned in C<$?>
7265 and C<{^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}>.
7266 Note that a return value of C<-1> could mean that child processes are
7267 being automatically reaped, as described in L<perlipc>.
7269 =item waitpid PID,FLAGS
7272 Waits for a particular child process to terminate and returns the pid of
7273 the deceased process, or C<-1> if there is no such child process. On some
7274 systems, a value of 0 indicates that there are processes still running.
7275 The status is returned in C<$?> and C<{^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}>. If you say
7277 use POSIX ":sys_wait_h";
7280 $kid = waitpid(-1, WNOHANG);
7283 then you can do a non-blocking wait for all pending zombie processes.
7284 Non-blocking wait is available on machines supporting either the
7285 waitpid(2) or wait4(2) system calls. However, waiting for a particular
7286 pid with FLAGS of C<0> is implemented everywhere. (Perl emulates the
7287 system call by remembering the status values of processes that have
7288 exited but have not been harvested by the Perl script yet.)
7290 Note that on some systems, a return value of C<-1> could mean that child
7291 processes are being automatically reaped. See L<perlipc> for details,
7292 and for other examples.
7295 X<wantarray> X<context>
7297 Returns true if the context of the currently executing subroutine or
7298 C<eval> is looking for a list value. Returns false if the context is
7299 looking for a scalar. Returns the undefined value if the context is
7300 looking for no value (void context).
7302 return unless defined wantarray; # don't bother doing more
7303 my @a = complex_calculation();
7304 return wantarray ? @a : "@a";
7306 C<wantarray()>'s result is unspecified in the top level of a file,
7307 in a C<BEGIN>, C<UNITCHECK>, C<CHECK>, C<INIT> or C<END> block, or
7308 in a C<DESTROY> method.
7310 This function should have been named wantlist() instead.
7313 X<warn> X<warning> X<STDERR>
7315 Prints the value of LIST to STDERR. If the last element of LIST does
7316 not end in a newline, it appends the same file/line number text as C<die>
7319 If LIST is empty and C<$@> already contains a value (typically from a
7320 previous eval) that value is used after appending C<"\t...caught">
7321 to C<$@>. This is useful for staying almost, but not entirely similar to
7324 If C<$@> is empty then the string C<"Warning: Something's wrong"> is used.
7326 No message is printed if there is a C<$SIG{__WARN__}> handler
7327 installed. It is the handler's responsibility to deal with the message
7328 as it sees fit (like, for instance, converting it into a C<die>). Most
7329 handlers must therefore make arrangements to actually display the
7330 warnings that they are not prepared to deal with, by calling C<warn>
7331 again in the handler. Note that this is quite safe and will not
7332 produce an endless loop, since C<__WARN__> hooks are not called from
7335 You will find this behavior is slightly different from that of
7336 C<$SIG{__DIE__}> handlers (which don't suppress the error text, but can
7337 instead call C<die> again to change it).
7339 Using a C<__WARN__> handler provides a powerful way to silence all
7340 warnings (even the so-called mandatory ones). An example:
7342 # wipe out *all* compile-time warnings
7343 BEGIN { $SIG{'__WARN__'} = sub { warn $_[0] if $DOWARN } }
7345 my $foo = 20; # no warning about duplicate my $foo,
7346 # but hey, you asked for it!
7347 # no compile-time or run-time warnings before here
7350 # run-time warnings enabled after here
7351 warn "\$foo is alive and $foo!"; # does show up
7353 See L<perlvar> for details on setting C<%SIG> entries, and for more
7354 examples. See the Carp module for other kinds of warnings using its
7355 carp() and cluck() functions.
7357 =item write FILEHANDLE
7364 Writes a formatted record (possibly multi-line) to the specified FILEHANDLE,
7365 using the format associated with that file. By default the format for
7366 a file is the one having the same name as the filehandle, but the
7367 format for the current output channel (see the C<select> function) may be set
7368 explicitly by assigning the name of the format to the C<$~> variable.
7370 Top of form processing is handled automatically: if there is
7371 insufficient room on the current page for the formatted record, the
7372 page is advanced by writing a form feed, a special top-of-page format
7373 is used to format the new page header, and then the record is written.
7374 By default the top-of-page format is the name of the filehandle with
7375 "_TOP" appended, but it may be dynamically set to the format of your
7376 choice by assigning the name to the C<$^> variable while the filehandle is
7377 selected. The number of lines remaining on the current page is in
7378 variable C<$->, which can be set to C<0> to force a new page.
7380 If FILEHANDLE is unspecified, output goes to the current default output
7381 channel, which starts out as STDOUT but may be changed by the
7382 C<select> operator. If the FILEHANDLE is an EXPR, then the expression
7383 is evaluated and the resulting string is used to look up the name of
7384 the FILEHANDLE at run time. For more on formats, see L<perlform>.
7386 Note that write is I<not> the opposite of C<read>. Unfortunately.
7390 The transliteration operator. Same as C<tr///>. See L<perlop>.