3 perlvar - Perl predefined variables
7 =head2 Predefined Names
9 The following names have special meaning to Perl. Most
10 punctuation names have reasonable mnemonics, or analogs in the
11 shells. Nevertheless, if you wish to use long variable names,
16 at the top of your program. This aliases all the short names to the long
17 names in the current package. Some even have medium names, generally
18 borrowed from B<awk>. In general, it's best to use the
20 use English '-no_match_vars';
22 invocation if you don't need $PREMATCH, $MATCH, or $POSTMATCH, as it avoids
23 a certain performance hit with the use of regular expressions. See
26 Variables that depend on the currently selected filehandle may be set by
27 calling an appropriate object method on the IO::Handle object, although
28 this is less efficient than using the regular built-in variables. (Summary
29 lines below for this contain the word HANDLE.) First you must say
33 after which you may use either
41 Each method returns the old value of the IO::Handle attribute.
42 The methods each take an optional EXPR, which, if supplied, specifies the
43 new value for the IO::Handle attribute in question. If not supplied,
44 most methods do nothing to the current value--except for
45 autoflush(), which will assume a 1 for you, just to be different.
47 Because loading in the IO::Handle class is an expensive operation, you should
48 learn how to use the regular built-in variables.
50 A few of these variables are considered "read-only". This means that if
51 you try to assign to this variable, either directly or indirectly through
52 a reference, you'll raise a run-time exception.
54 You should be very careful when modifying the default values of most
55 special variables described in this document. In most cases you want
56 to localize these variables before changing them, since if you don't,
57 the change may affect other modules which rely on the default values
58 of the special variables that you have changed. This is one of the
59 correct ways to read the whole file at once:
61 open my $fh, "foo" or die $!;
62 local $/; # enable localized slurp mode
66 But the following code is quite bad:
68 open my $fh, "foo" or die $!;
69 undef $/; # enable slurp mode
73 since some other module, may want to read data from some file in the
74 default "line mode", so if the code we have just presented has been
75 executed, the global value of C<$/> is now changed for any other code
76 running inside the same Perl interpreter.
78 Usually when a variable is localized you want to make sure that this
79 change affects the shortest scope possible. So unless you are already
80 inside some short C<{}> block, you should create one yourself. For
84 open my $fh, "foo" or die $!;
91 Here is an example of how your own code can go broken:
99 # do something with $_
102 You probably expect this code to print:
110 Why? Because nasty_break() modifies C<$_> without localizing it
111 first. The fix is to add local():
115 It's easy to notice the problem in such a short example, but in more
116 complicated code you are looking for trouble if you don't localize
117 changes to the special variables.
119 The following list is ordered by scalar variables first, then the
120 arrays, then the hashes.
128 The default input and pattern-searching space. The following pairs are
131 while (<>) {...} # equivalent only in while!
132 while (defined($_ = <>)) {...}
143 Here are the places where Perl will assume $_ even if you
150 Various unary functions, including functions like ord() and int(), as well
151 as the all file tests (C<-f>, C<-d>) except for C<-t>, which defaults to
156 Various list functions like print() and unlink().
160 The pattern matching operations C<m//>, C<s///>, and C<tr///> when used
161 without an C<=~> operator.
165 The default iterator variable in a C<foreach> loop if no other
166 variable is supplied.
170 The implicit iterator variable in the grep() and map() functions.
174 The default place to put an input record when a C<< <FH> >>
175 operation's result is tested by itself as the sole criterion of a C<while>
176 test. Outside a C<while> test, this will not happen.
180 (Mnemonic: underline is understood in certain operations.)
190 Special package variables when using sort(), see L<perlfunc/sort>.
191 Because of this specialness $a and $b don't need to be declared
192 (using local(), use vars, or our()) even when using the strict
193 vars pragma. Don't lexicalize them with C<my $a> or C<my $b>
194 if you want to be able to use them in the sort() comparison block
203 Contains the subpattern from the corresponding set of capturing
204 parentheses from the last pattern match, not counting patterns
205 matched in nested blocks that have been exited already. (Mnemonic:
206 like \digits.) These variables are all read-only and dynamically
207 scoped to the current BLOCK.
213 The string matched by the last successful pattern match (not counting
214 any matches hidden within a BLOCK or eval() enclosed by the current
215 BLOCK). (Mnemonic: like & in some editors.) This variable is read-only
216 and dynamically scoped to the current BLOCK.
218 The use of this variable anywhere in a program imposes a considerable
219 performance penalty on all regular expression matches. See L</BUGS>.
225 The string preceding whatever was matched by the last successful
226 pattern match (not counting any matches hidden within a BLOCK or eval
227 enclosed by the current BLOCK). (Mnemonic: C<`> often precedes a quoted
228 string.) This variable is read-only.
230 The use of this variable anywhere in a program imposes a considerable
231 performance penalty on all regular expression matches. See L</BUGS>.
237 The string following whatever was matched by the last successful
238 pattern match (not counting any matches hidden within a BLOCK or eval()
239 enclosed by the current BLOCK). (Mnemonic: C<'> often follows a quoted
242 local $_ = 'abcdefghi';
244 print "$`:$&:$'\n"; # prints abc:def:ghi
246 This variable is read-only and dynamically scoped to the current BLOCK.
248 The use of this variable anywhere in a program imposes a considerable
249 performance penalty on all regular expression matches. See L</BUGS>.
251 =item $LAST_PAREN_MATCH
255 The text matched by the last bracket of the last successful search pattern.
256 This is useful if you don't know which one of a set of alternative patterns
257 matched. For example:
259 /Version: (.*)|Revision: (.*)/ && ($rev = $+);
261 (Mnemonic: be positive and forward looking.)
262 This variable is read-only and dynamically scoped to the current BLOCK.
266 The text matched by the used group most-recently closed (i.e. the group
267 with the rightmost closing parenthesis) of the last successful search
268 pattern. (Mnemonic: the (possibly) Nested parenthesis that most
271 This is primarily used inside C<(?{...})> blocks for examining text
272 recently matched. For example, to effectively capture text to a variable
273 (in addition to C<$1>, C<$2>, etc.), replace C<(...)> with
275 (?:(...)(?{ $var = $^N }))
277 By setting and then using C<$var> in this way relieves you from having to
278 worry about exactly which numbered set of parentheses they are.
280 This variable is dynamically scoped to the current BLOCK.
282 =item @LAST_MATCH_END
286 This array holds the offsets of the ends of the last successful
287 submatches in the currently active dynamic scope. C<$+[0]> is
288 the offset into the string of the end of the entire match. This
289 is the same value as what the C<pos> function returns when called
290 on the variable that was matched against. The I<n>th element
291 of this array holds the offset of the I<n>th submatch, so
292 C<$+[1]> is the offset past where $1 ends, C<$+[2]> the offset
293 past where $2 ends, and so on. You can use C<$#+> to determine
294 how many subgroups were in the last successful match. See the
295 examples given for the C<@-> variable.
297 =item HANDLE->input_line_number(EXPR)
299 =item $INPUT_LINE_NUMBER
305 Current line number for the last filehandle accessed.
307 Each filehandle in Perl counts the number of lines that have been read
308 from it. (Depending on the value of C<$/>, Perl's idea of what
309 constitutes a line may not match yours.) When a line is read from a
310 filehandle (via readline() or C<< <> >>), or when tell() or seek() is
311 called on it, C<$.> becomes an alias to the line counter for that
314 You can adjust the counter by assigning to C<$.>, but this will not
315 actually move the seek pointer. I<Localizing C<$.> will not localize
316 the filehandle's line count>. Instead, it will localize perl's notion
317 of which filehandle C<$.> is currently aliased to.
319 C<$.> is reset when the filehandle is closed, but B<not> when an open
320 filehandle is reopened without an intervening close(). For more
321 details, see L<perlop/"IE<sol>O Operators">. Because C<< <> >> never does
322 an explicit close, line numbers increase across ARGV files (but see
323 examples in L<perlfunc/eof>).
325 You can also use C<< HANDLE->input_line_number(EXPR) >> to access the
326 line counter for a given filehandle without having to worry about
327 which handle you last accessed.
329 (Mnemonic: many programs use "." to mean the current line number.)
331 =item IO::Handle->input_record_separator(EXPR)
333 =item $INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR
339 The input record separator, newline by default. This
340 influences Perl's idea of what a "line" is. Works like B<awk>'s RS
341 variable, including treating empty lines as a terminator if set to
342 the null string. (An empty line cannot contain any spaces
343 or tabs.) You may set it to a multi-character string to match a
344 multi-character terminator, or to C<undef> to read through the end
345 of file. Setting it to C<"\n\n"> means something slightly
346 different than setting to C<"">, if the file contains consecutive
347 empty lines. Setting to C<""> will treat two or more consecutive
348 empty lines as a single empty line. Setting to C<"\n\n"> will
349 blindly assume that the next input character belongs to the next
350 paragraph, even if it's a newline. (Mnemonic: / delimits
351 line boundaries when quoting poetry.)
353 local $/; # enable "slurp" mode
354 local $_ = <FH>; # whole file now here
357 Remember: the value of C<$/> is a string, not a regex. B<awk> has to be
358 better for something. :-)
360 Setting C<$/> to a reference to an integer, scalar containing an integer, or
361 scalar that's convertible to an integer will attempt to read records
362 instead of lines, with the maximum record size being the referenced
365 local $/ = \32768; # or \"32768", or \$var_containing_32768
366 open my $fh, $myfile or die $!;
369 will read a record of no more than 32768 bytes from FILE. If you're
370 not reading from a record-oriented file (or your OS doesn't have
371 record-oriented files), then you'll likely get a full chunk of data
372 with every read. If a record is larger than the record size you've
373 set, you'll get the record back in pieces.
375 On VMS, record reads are done with the equivalent of C<sysread>,
376 so it's best not to mix record and non-record reads on the same
377 file. (This is unlikely to be a problem, because any file you'd
378 want to read in record mode is probably unusable in line mode.)
379 Non-VMS systems do normal I/O, so it's safe to mix record and
380 non-record reads of a file.
382 See also L<perlport/"Newlines">. Also see C<$.>.
384 =item HANDLE->autoflush(EXPR)
386 =item $OUTPUT_AUTOFLUSH
390 If set to nonzero, forces a flush right away and after every write
391 or print on the currently selected output channel. Default is 0
392 (regardless of whether the channel is really buffered by the
393 system or not; C<$|> tells you only whether you've asked Perl
394 explicitly to flush after each write). STDOUT will
395 typically be line buffered if output is to the terminal and block
396 buffered otherwise. Setting this variable is useful primarily when
397 you are outputting to a pipe or socket, such as when you are running
398 a Perl program under B<rsh> and want to see the output as it's
399 happening. This has no effect on input buffering. See L<perlfunc/getc>
400 for that. (Mnemonic: when you want your pipes to be piping hot.)
402 =item IO::Handle->output_field_separator EXPR
404 =item $OUTPUT_FIELD_SEPARATOR
410 The output field separator for the print operator. Ordinarily the
411 print operator simply prints out its arguments without further
412 adornment. To get behavior more like B<awk>, set this variable as
413 you would set B<awk>'s OFS variable to specify what is printed
414 between fields. (Mnemonic: what is printed when there is a "," in
415 your print statement.)
417 =item IO::Handle->output_record_separator EXPR
419 =item $OUTPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR
425 The output record separator for the print operator. Ordinarily the
426 print operator simply prints out its arguments as is, with no
427 trailing newline or other end-of-record string added. To get
428 behavior more like B<awk>, set this variable as you would set
429 B<awk>'s ORS variable to specify what is printed at the end of the
430 print. (Mnemonic: you set C<$\> instead of adding "\n" at the
431 end of the print. Also, it's just like C<$/>, but it's what you
432 get "back" from Perl.)
434 =item $LIST_SEPARATOR
438 This is like C<$,> except that it applies to array and slice values
439 interpolated into a double-quoted string (or similar interpreted
440 string). Default is a space. (Mnemonic: obvious, I think.)
442 =item $SUBSCRIPT_SEPARATOR
448 The subscript separator for multidimensional array emulation. If you
449 refer to a hash element as
455 $foo{join($;, $a, $b, $c)}
459 @foo{$a,$b,$c} # a slice--note the @
463 ($foo{$a},$foo{$b},$foo{$c})
465 Default is "\034", the same as SUBSEP in B<awk>. If your
466 keys contain binary data there might not be any safe value for C<$;>.
467 (Mnemonic: comma (the syntactic subscript separator) is a
468 semi-semicolon. Yeah, I know, it's pretty lame, but C<$,> is already
469 taken for something more important.)
471 Consider using "real" multidimensional arrays as described
478 The output format for printed numbers. This variable is a half-hearted
479 attempt to emulate B<awk>'s OFMT variable. There are times, however,
480 when B<awk> and Perl have differing notions of what counts as
481 numeric. The initial value is "%.I<n>g", where I<n> is the value
482 of the macro DBL_DIG from your system's F<float.h>. This is different from
483 B<awk>'s default OFMT setting of "%.6g", so you need to set C<$#>
484 explicitly to get B<awk>'s value. (Mnemonic: # is the number sign.)
486 Use of C<$#> is deprecated.
488 =item HANDLE->format_page_number(EXPR)
490 =item $FORMAT_PAGE_NUMBER
494 The current page number of the currently selected output channel.
496 (Mnemonic: % is page number in B<nroff>.)
498 =item HANDLE->format_lines_per_page(EXPR)
500 =item $FORMAT_LINES_PER_PAGE
504 The current page length (printable lines) of the currently selected
505 output channel. Default is 60.
507 (Mnemonic: = has horizontal lines.)
509 =item HANDLE->format_lines_left(EXPR)
511 =item $FORMAT_LINES_LEFT
515 The number of lines left on the page of the currently selected output
518 (Mnemonic: lines_on_page - lines_printed.)
520 =item @LAST_MATCH_START
524 $-[0] is the offset of the start of the last successful match.
525 C<$-[>I<n>C<]> is the offset of the start of the substring matched by
526 I<n>-th subpattern, or undef if the subpattern did not match.
528 Thus after a match against $_, $& coincides with C<substr $_, $-[0],
529 $+[0] - $-[0]>. Similarly, C<$>I<n> coincides with C<substr $_, $-[>I<n>C<],
530 $+[>I<n>C<] - $-[>I<n>C<]> if C<$-[>I<n>C<]> is defined, and $+ coincides with
531 C<substr $_, $-[$#-], $+[$#-]>. One can use C<$#-> to find the last
532 matched subgroup in the last successful match. Contrast with
533 C<$#+>, the number of subgroups in the regular expression. Compare
536 This array holds the offsets of the beginnings of the last
537 successful submatches in the currently active dynamic scope.
538 C<$-[0]> is the offset into the string of the beginning of the
539 entire match. The I<n>th element of this array holds the offset
540 of the I<n>th submatch, so C<$-[1]> is the offset where $1
541 begins, C<$-[2]> the offset where $2 begins, and so on.
543 After a match against some variable $var:
547 =item C<$`> is the same as C<substr($var, 0, $-[0])>
549 =item C<$&> is the same as C<substr($var, $-[0], $+[0] - $-[0])>
551 =item C<$'> is the same as C<substr($var, $+[0])>
553 =item C<$1> is the same as C<substr($var, $-[1], $+[1] - $-[1])>
555 =item C<$2> is the same as C<substr($var, $-[2], $+[2] - $-[2])>
557 =item C<$3> is the same as C<substr $var, $-[3], $+[3] - $-[3])>
561 =item HANDLE->format_name(EXPR)
567 The name of the current report format for the currently selected output
568 channel. Default is the name of the filehandle. (Mnemonic: brother to
571 =item HANDLE->format_top_name(EXPR)
573 =item $FORMAT_TOP_NAME
577 The name of the current top-of-page format for the currently selected
578 output channel. Default is the name of the filehandle with _TOP
579 appended. (Mnemonic: points to top of page.)
581 =item IO::Handle->format_line_break_characters EXPR
583 =item $FORMAT_LINE_BREAK_CHARACTERS
587 The current set of characters after which a string may be broken to
588 fill continuation fields (starting with ^) in a format. Default is
589 S<" \n-">, to break on whitespace or hyphens. (Mnemonic: a "colon" in
590 poetry is a part of a line.)
592 =item IO::Handle->format_formfeed EXPR
594 =item $FORMAT_FORMFEED
598 What formats output as a form feed. Default is \f.
604 The current value of the write() accumulator for format() lines. A format
605 contains formline() calls that put their result into C<$^A>. After
606 calling its format, write() prints out the contents of C<$^A> and empties.
607 So you never really see the contents of C<$^A> unless you call
608 formline() yourself and then look at it. See L<perlform> and
609 L<perlfunc/formline()>.
615 The status returned by the last pipe close, backtick (C<``>) command,
616 successful call to wait() or waitpid(), or from the system()
617 operator. This is just the 16-bit status word returned by the
618 wait() system call (or else is made up to look like it). Thus, the
619 exit value of the subprocess is really (C<<< $? >> 8 >>>), and
620 C<$? & 127> gives which signal, if any, the process died from, and
621 C<$? & 128> reports whether there was a core dump. (Mnemonic:
622 similar to B<sh> and B<ksh>.)
624 Additionally, if the C<h_errno> variable is supported in C, its value
625 is returned via $? if any C<gethost*()> function fails.
627 If you have installed a signal handler for C<SIGCHLD>, the
628 value of C<$?> will usually be wrong outside that handler.
630 Inside an C<END> subroutine C<$?> contains the value that is going to be
631 given to C<exit()>. You can modify C<$?> in an C<END> subroutine to
632 change the exit status of your program. For example:
635 $? = 1 if $? == 255; # die would make it 255
638 Under VMS, the pragma C<use vmsish 'status'> makes C<$?> reflect the
639 actual VMS exit status, instead of the default emulation of POSIX
640 status; see L<perlvms/$?> for details.
642 Also see L<Error Indicators>.
646 The I<object reference> to the Encode object that is used to convert
647 the source code to Unicode. Thanks to this variable your perl script
648 does not have to be written in UTF-8. Default is I<undef>. The direct
649 manipulation of this variable is highly discouraged. See L<encoding>
658 If used numerically, yields the current value of the C C<errno>
659 variable, or in other words, if a system or library call fails, it
660 sets this variable. This means that the value of C<$!> is meaningful
661 only I<immediately> after a B<failure>:
663 if (open(FH, $filename)) {
664 # Here $! is meaningless.
667 # ONLY here is $! meaningful.
669 # Already here $! might be meaningless.
671 # Since here we might have either success or failure,
672 # here $! is meaningless.
674 In the above I<meaningless> stands for anything: zero, non-zero,
675 C<undef>. A successful system or library call does B<not> set
676 the variable to zero.
678 If used an a string, yields the corresponding system error string.
679 You can assign a number to C<$!> to set I<errno> if, for instance,
680 you want C<"$!"> to return the string for error I<n>, or you want
681 to set the exit value for the die() operator. (Mnemonic: What just
684 Also see L<Error Indicators>.
688 Each element of C<%!> has a true value only if C<$!> is set to that
689 value. For example, C<$!{ENOENT}> is true if and only if the current
690 value of C<$!> is C<ENOENT>; that is, if the most recent error was
691 "No such file or directory" (or its moral equivalent: not all operating
692 systems give that exact error, and certainly not all languages).
693 To check if a particular key is meaningful on your system, use
694 C<exists $!{the_key}>; for a list of legal keys, use C<keys %!>.
695 See L<Errno> for more information, and also see above for the
698 =item $EXTENDED_OS_ERROR
702 Error information specific to the current operating system. At
703 the moment, this differs from C<$!> under only VMS, OS/2, and Win32
704 (and for MacPerl). On all other platforms, C<$^E> is always just
707 Under VMS, C<$^E> provides the VMS status value from the last
708 system error. This is more specific information about the last
709 system error than that provided by C<$!>. This is particularly
710 important when C<$!> is set to B<EVMSERR>.
712 Under OS/2, C<$^E> is set to the error code of the last call to
713 OS/2 API either via CRT, or directly from perl.
715 Under Win32, C<$^E> always returns the last error information
716 reported by the Win32 call C<GetLastError()> which describes
717 the last error from within the Win32 API. Most Win32-specific
718 code will report errors via C<$^E>. ANSI C and Unix-like calls
719 set C<errno> and so most portable Perl code will report errors
722 Caveats mentioned in the description of C<$!> generally apply to
723 C<$^E>, also. (Mnemonic: Extra error explanation.)
725 Also see L<Error Indicators>.
731 The Perl syntax error message from the last eval() operator.
732 If $@ is the null string, the last eval() parsed and executed
733 correctly (although the operations you invoked may have failed in the
734 normal fashion). (Mnemonic: Where was the syntax error "at"?)
736 Warning messages are not collected in this variable. You can,
737 however, set up a routine to process warnings by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
740 Also see L<Error Indicators>.
748 The process number of the Perl running this script. You should
749 consider this variable read-only, although it will be altered
750 across fork() calls. (Mnemonic: same as shells.)
752 Note for Linux users: on Linux, the C functions C<getpid()> and
753 C<getppid()> return different values from different threads. In order to
754 be portable, this behavior is not reflected by C<$$>, whose value remains
755 consistent across threads. If you want to call the underlying C<getpid()>,
756 you may use the CPAN module C<Linux::Pid>.
764 The real uid of this process. (Mnemonic: it's the uid you came I<from>,
765 if you're running setuid.) You can change both the real uid and
766 the effective uid at the same time by using POSIX::setuid().
768 =item $EFFECTIVE_USER_ID
774 The effective uid of this process. Example:
776 $< = $>; # set real to effective uid
777 ($<,$>) = ($>,$<); # swap real and effective uid
779 You can change both the effective uid and the real uid at the same
780 time by using POSIX::setuid().
782 (Mnemonic: it's the uid you went I<to>, if you're running setuid.)
783 C<< $< >> and C<< $> >> can be swapped only on machines
784 supporting setreuid().
792 The real gid of this process. If you are on a machine that supports
793 membership in multiple groups simultaneously, gives a space separated
794 list of groups you are in. The first number is the one returned by
795 getgid(), and the subsequent ones by getgroups(), one of which may be
796 the same as the first number.
798 However, a value assigned to C<$(> must be a single number used to
799 set the real gid. So the value given by C<$(> should I<not> be assigned
800 back to C<$(> without being forced numeric, such as by adding zero.
802 You can change both the real gid and the effective gid at the same
803 time by using POSIX::setgid().
805 (Mnemonic: parentheses are used to I<group> things. The real gid is the
806 group you I<left>, if you're running setgid.)
808 =item $EFFECTIVE_GROUP_ID
814 The effective gid of this process. If you are on a machine that
815 supports membership in multiple groups simultaneously, gives a space
816 separated list of groups you are in. The first number is the one
817 returned by getegid(), and the subsequent ones by getgroups(), one of
818 which may be the same as the first number.
820 Similarly, a value assigned to C<$)> must also be a space-separated
821 list of numbers. The first number sets the effective gid, and
822 the rest (if any) are passed to setgroups(). To get the effect of an
823 empty list for setgroups(), just repeat the new effective gid; that is,
824 to force an effective gid of 5 and an effectively empty setgroups()
825 list, say C< $) = "5 5" >.
827 You can change both the effective gid and the real gid at the same
828 time by using POSIX::setgid() (use only a single numeric argument).
830 (Mnemonic: parentheses are used to I<group> things. The effective gid
831 is the group that's I<right> for you, if you're running setgid.)
833 C<< $< >>, C<< $> >>, C<$(> and C<$)> can be set only on
834 machines that support the corresponding I<set[re][ug]id()> routine. C<$(>
835 and C<$)> can be swapped only on machines supporting setregid().
841 Contains the name of the program being executed. On some operating
842 systems assigning to C<$0> modifies the argument area that the B<ps>
843 program sees. This is more useful as a way of indicating the current
844 program state than it is for hiding the program you're running.
845 (Mnemonic: same as B<sh> and B<ksh>.)
847 Note for BSD users: setting C<$0> does not completely remove "perl"
848 from the ps(1) output. For example, setting C<$0> to C<"foobar"> will
849 result in C<"perl: foobar (perl)">. This is an operating system
852 In multithreaded scripts Perl coordinates the threads so that any
853 thread may modify its copy of the C<$0> and the change becomes visible
854 to ps(1) (assuming the operating system plays along).
858 The index of the first element in an array, and of the first character
859 in a substring. Default is 0, but you could theoretically set it
860 to 1 to make Perl behave more like B<awk> (or Fortran) when
861 subscripting and when evaluating the index() and substr() functions.
862 (Mnemonic: [ begins subscripts.)
864 As of release 5 of Perl, assignment to C<$[> is treated as a compiler
865 directive, and cannot influence the behavior of any other file.
866 (That's why you can only assign compile-time constants to it.)
867 Its use is highly discouraged.
869 Note that, unlike other compile-time directives (such as L<strict>),
870 assignment to $[ can be seen from outer lexical scopes in the same file.
871 However, you can use local() on it to strictly bound its value to a
876 The version + patchlevel / 1000 of the Perl interpreter. This variable
877 can be used to determine whether the Perl interpreter executing a
878 script is in the right range of versions. (Mnemonic: Is this version
879 of perl in the right bracket?) Example:
881 warn "No checksumming!\n" if $] < 3.019;
883 See also the documentation of C<use VERSION> and C<require VERSION>
884 for a convenient way to fail if the running Perl interpreter is too old.
886 The floating point representation can sometimes lead to inaccurate
887 numeric comparisons. See C<$^V> for a more modern representation of
888 the Perl version that allows accurate string comparisons.
894 The current value of the flag associated with the B<-c> switch.
895 Mainly of use with B<-MO=...> to allow code to alter its behavior
896 when being compiled, such as for example to AUTOLOAD at compile
897 time rather than normal, deferred loading. See L<perlcc>. Setting
898 C<$^C = 1> is similar to calling C<B::minus_c>.
904 The current value of the debugging flags. (Mnemonic: value of B<-D>
911 The maximum system file descriptor, ordinarily 2. System file
912 descriptors are passed to exec()ed processes, while higher file
913 descriptors are not. Also, during an open(), system file descriptors are
914 preserved even if the open() fails. (Ordinary file descriptors are
915 closed before the open() is attempted.) The close-on-exec
916 status of a file descriptor will be decided according to the value of
917 C<$^F> when the corresponding file, pipe, or socket was opened, not the
922 WARNING: This variable is strictly for internal use only. Its availability,
923 behavior, and contents are subject to change without notice.
925 This variable contains compile-time hints for the Perl interpreter. At the
926 end of compilation of a BLOCK the value of this variable is restored to the
927 value when the interpreter started to compile the BLOCK.
929 When perl begins to parse any block construct that provides a lexical scope
930 (e.g., eval body, required file, subroutine body, loop body, or conditional
931 block), the existing value of $^H is saved, but its value is left unchanged.
932 When the compilation of the block is completed, it regains the saved value.
933 Between the points where its value is saved and restored, code that
934 executes within BEGIN blocks is free to change the value of $^H.
936 This behavior provides the semantic of lexical scoping, and is used in,
937 for instance, the C<use strict> pragma.
939 The contents should be an integer; different bits of it are used for
940 different pragmatic flags. Here's an example:
942 sub add_100 { $^H |= 0x100 }
949 Consider what happens during execution of the BEGIN block. At this point
950 the BEGIN block has already been compiled, but the body of foo() is still
951 being compiled. The new value of $^H will therefore be visible only while
952 the body of foo() is being compiled.
954 Substitution of the above BEGIN block with:
956 BEGIN { require strict; strict->import('vars') }
958 demonstrates how C<use strict 'vars'> is implemented. Here's a conditional
959 version of the same lexical pragma:
961 BEGIN { require strict; strict->import('vars') if $condition }
965 WARNING: This variable is strictly for internal use only. Its availability,
966 behavior, and contents are subject to change without notice.
968 The %^H hash provides the same scoping semantic as $^H. This makes it
969 useful for implementation of lexically scoped pragmas.
975 The current value of the inplace-edit extension. Use C<undef> to disable
976 inplace editing. (Mnemonic: value of B<-i> switch.)
980 By default, running out of memory is an untrappable, fatal error.
981 However, if suitably built, Perl can use the contents of C<$^M>
982 as an emergency memory pool after die()ing. Suppose that your Perl
983 were compiled with -DPERL_EMERGENCY_SBRK and used Perl's malloc.
986 $^M = 'a' x (1 << 16);
988 would allocate a 64K buffer for use in an emergency. See the
989 F<INSTALL> file in the Perl distribution for information on how to
990 enable this option. To discourage casual use of this advanced
991 feature, there is no L<English|English> long name for this variable.
997 The name of the operating system under which this copy of Perl was
998 built, as determined during the configuration process. The value
999 is identical to C<$Config{'osname'}>. See also L<Config> and the
1000 B<-V> command-line switch documented in L<perlrun>.
1002 In Windows platforms, $^O is not very helpful: since it is always
1003 C<MSWin32>, it doesn't tell the difference between
1004 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/CE/.NET. Use Win32::GetOSName() or
1005 Win32::GetOSVersion() (see L<Win32> and L<perlport>) to distinguish
1006 between the variants.
1010 An internal variable used by PerlIO. A string in two parts, separated
1011 by a C<\0> byte, the first part describes the input layers, the second
1012 part describes the output layers.
1018 The internal variable for debugging support. The meanings of the
1019 various bits are subject to change, but currently indicate:
1025 Debug subroutine enter/exit.
1029 Line-by-line debugging.
1033 Switch off optimizations.
1037 Preserve more data for future interactive inspections.
1041 Keep info about source lines on which a subroutine is defined.
1045 Start with single-step on.
1049 Use subroutine address instead of name when reporting.
1053 Report C<goto &subroutine> as well.
1057 Provide informative "file" names for evals based on the place they were compiled.
1061 Provide informative names to anonymous subroutines based on the place they
1066 Some bits may be relevant at compile-time only, some at
1067 run-time only. This is a new mechanism and the details may change.
1069 =item $LAST_REGEXP_CODE_RESULT
1073 The result of evaluation of the last successful C<(?{ code })>
1074 regular expression assertion (see L<perlre>). May be written to.
1076 =item $EXCEPTIONS_BEING_CAUGHT
1080 Current state of the interpreter.
1083 --------- -------------------
1084 undef Parsing module/eval
1085 true (1) Executing an eval
1088 The first state may happen in $SIG{__DIE__} and $SIG{__WARN__} handlers.
1094 The time at which the program began running, in seconds since the
1095 epoch (beginning of 1970). The values returned by the B<-M>, B<-A>,
1096 and B<-C> filetests are based on this value.
1100 Reflects if taint mode is on or off. 1 for on (the program was run with
1101 B<-T>), 0 for off, -1 when only taint warnings are enabled (i.e. with
1102 B<-t> or B<-TU>). This variable is read-only.
1106 Reflects certain Unicode settings of Perl. See L<perlrun>
1107 documentation for the C<-C> switch for more information about
1108 the possible values. This variable is set during Perl startup
1109 and is thereafter read-only.
1115 The revision, version, and subversion of the Perl interpreter, represented
1116 as a string composed of characters with those ordinals. Thus in Perl v5.6.0
1117 it equals C<chr(5) . chr(6) . chr(0)> and will return true for
1118 C<$^V eq v5.6.0>. Note that the characters in this string value can
1119 potentially be in Unicode range.
1121 This can be used to determine whether the Perl interpreter executing a
1122 script is in the right range of versions. (Mnemonic: use ^V for Version
1125 warn "No \"our\" declarations!\n" if $^V and $^V lt v5.6.0;
1127 To convert C<$^V> into its string representation use sprintf()'s
1128 C<"%vd"> conversion:
1130 printf "version is v%vd\n", $^V; # Perl's version
1132 See the documentation of C<use VERSION> and C<require VERSION>
1133 for a convenient way to fail if the running Perl interpreter is too old.
1135 See also C<$]> for an older representation of the Perl version.
1141 The current value of the warning switch, initially true if B<-w>
1142 was used, false otherwise, but directly modifiable. (Mnemonic:
1143 related to the B<-w> switch.) See also L<warnings>.
1145 =item ${^WARNING_BITS}
1147 The current set of warning checks enabled by the C<use warnings> pragma.
1148 See the documentation of C<warnings> for more details.
1150 =item $EXECUTABLE_NAME
1154 The name used to execute the current copy of Perl, from C's
1157 Depending on the host operating system, the value of $^X may be
1158 a relative or absolute pathname of the perl program file, or may
1159 be the string used to invoke perl but not the pathname of the
1160 perl program file. Also, most operating systems permit invoking
1161 programs that are not in the PATH environment variable, so there
1162 is no guarantee that the value of $^X is in PATH. For VMS, the
1163 value may or may not include a version number.
1165 You usually can use the value of $^X to re-invoke an independent
1166 copy of the same perl that is currently running, e.g.,
1168 @first_run = `$^X -le "print int rand 100 for 1..100"`;
1170 But recall that not all operating systems support forking or
1171 capturing of the output of commands, so this complex statement
1172 may not be portable.
1174 It is not safe to use the value of $^X as a path name of a file,
1175 as some operating systems that have a mandatory suffix on
1176 executable files do not require use of the suffix when invoking
1177 a command. To convert the value of $^X to a path name, use the
1178 following statements:
1180 # Build up a set of file names (not command names).
1184 {$this_perl .= $Config{_exe}
1185 unless $this_perl =~ m/$Config{_exe}$/i;}
1187 Because many operating systems permit anyone with read access to
1188 the Perl program file to make a copy of it, patch the copy, and
1189 then execute the copy, the security-conscious Perl programmer
1190 should take care to invoke the installed copy of perl, not the
1191 copy referenced by $^X. The following statements accomplish
1192 this goal, and produce a pathname that can be invoked as a
1193 command or referenced as a file.
1196 $secure_perl_path = $Config{perlpath};
1198 {$secure_perl_path .= $Config{_exe}
1199 unless $secure_perl_path =~ m/$Config{_exe}$/i;}
1203 The special filehandle that iterates over command-line filenames in
1204 C<@ARGV>. Usually written as the null filehandle in the angle operator
1205 C<< <> >>. Note that currently C<ARGV> only has its magical effect
1206 within the C<< <> >> operator; elsewhere it is just a plain filehandle
1207 corresponding to the last file opened by C<< <> >>. In particular,
1208 passing C<\*ARGV> as a parameter to a function that expects a filehandle
1209 may not cause your function to automatically read the contents of all the
1214 contains the name of the current file when reading from <>.
1218 The array @ARGV contains the command-line arguments intended for
1219 the script. C<$#ARGV> is generally the number of arguments minus
1220 one, because C<$ARGV[0]> is the first argument, I<not> the program's
1221 command name itself. See C<$0> for the command name.
1225 The special filehandle that points to the currently open output file
1226 when doing edit-in-place processing with B<-i>. Useful when you have
1227 to do a lot of inserting and don't want to keep modifying $_. See
1228 L<perlrun> for the B<-i> switch.
1232 The array @F contains the fields of each line read in when autosplit
1233 mode is turned on. See L<perlrun> for the B<-a> switch. This array
1234 is package-specific, and must be declared or given a full package name
1235 if not in package main when running under C<strict 'vars'>.
1239 The array @INC contains the list of places that the C<do EXPR>,
1240 C<require>, or C<use> constructs look for their library files. It
1241 initially consists of the arguments to any B<-I> command-line
1242 switches, followed by the default Perl library, probably
1243 F</usr/local/lib/perl>, followed by ".", to represent the current
1244 directory. ("." will not be appended if taint checks are enabled, either by
1245 C<-T> or by C<-t>.) If you need to modify this at runtime, you should use
1246 the C<use lib> pragma to get the machine-dependent library properly
1249 use lib '/mypath/libdir/';
1252 You can also insert hooks into the file inclusion system by putting Perl
1253 code directly into @INC. Those hooks may be subroutine references, array
1254 references or blessed objects. See L<perlfunc/require> for details.
1258 Within a subroutine the array @_ contains the parameters passed to that
1259 subroutine. See L<perlsub>.
1263 The hash %INC contains entries for each filename included via the
1264 C<do>, C<require>, or C<use> operators. The key is the filename
1265 you specified (with module names converted to pathnames), and the
1266 value is the location of the file found. The C<require>
1267 operator uses this hash to determine whether a particular file has
1268 already been included.
1270 If the file was loaded via a hook (e.g. a subroutine reference, see
1271 L<perlfunc/require> for a description of these hooks), this hook is
1272 by default inserted into %INC in place of a filename. Note, however,
1273 that the hook may have set the %INC entry by itself to provide some more
1280 The hash %ENV contains your current environment. Setting a
1281 value in C<ENV> changes the environment for any child processes
1282 you subsequently fork() off.
1288 The hash %SIG contains signal handlers for signals. For example:
1290 sub handler { # 1st argument is signal name
1292 print "Caught a SIG$sig--shutting down\n";
1297 $SIG{'INT'} = \&handler;
1298 $SIG{'QUIT'} = \&handler;
1300 $SIG{'INT'} = 'DEFAULT'; # restore default action
1301 $SIG{'QUIT'} = 'IGNORE'; # ignore SIGQUIT
1303 Using a value of C<'IGNORE'> usually has the effect of ignoring the
1304 signal, except for the C<CHLD> signal. See L<perlipc> for more about
1307 Here are some other examples:
1309 $SIG{"PIPE"} = "Plumber"; # assumes main::Plumber (not recommended)
1310 $SIG{"PIPE"} = \&Plumber; # just fine; assume current Plumber
1311 $SIG{"PIPE"} = *Plumber; # somewhat esoteric
1312 $SIG{"PIPE"} = Plumber(); # oops, what did Plumber() return??
1314 Be sure not to use a bareword as the name of a signal handler,
1315 lest you inadvertently call it.
1317 If your system has the sigaction() function then signal handlers are
1318 installed using it. This means you get reliable signal handling. If
1319 your system has the SA_RESTART flag it is used when signals handlers are
1320 installed. This means that system calls for which restarting is supported
1321 continue rather than returning when a signal arrives. If you want your
1322 system calls to be interrupted by signal delivery then do something like
1325 use POSIX ':signal_h';
1328 sigaction SIGALRM, new POSIX::SigAction sub { $alarm = 1 }
1329 or die "Error setting SIGALRM handler: $!\n";
1333 The delivery policy of signals changed in Perl 5.8.0 from immediate
1334 (also known as "unsafe") to deferred, also known as "safe signals".
1335 See L<perlipc> for more information.
1337 Certain internal hooks can be also set using the %SIG hash. The
1338 routine indicated by C<$SIG{__WARN__}> is called when a warning message is
1339 about to be printed. The warning message is passed as the first
1340 argument. The presence of a __WARN__ hook causes the ordinary printing
1341 of warnings to STDERR to be suppressed. You can use this to save warnings
1342 in a variable, or turn warnings into fatal errors, like this:
1344 local $SIG{__WARN__} = sub { die $_[0] };
1347 The routine indicated by C<$SIG{__DIE__}> is called when a fatal exception
1348 is about to be thrown. The error message is passed as the first
1349 argument. When a __DIE__ hook routine returns, the exception
1350 processing continues as it would have in the absence of the hook,
1351 unless the hook routine itself exits via a C<goto>, a loop exit, or a die().
1352 The C<__DIE__> handler is explicitly disabled during the call, so that you
1353 can die from a C<__DIE__> handler. Similarly for C<__WARN__>.
1355 Due to an implementation glitch, the C<$SIG{__DIE__}> hook is called
1356 even inside an eval(). Do not use this to rewrite a pending exception
1357 in C<$@>, or as a bizarre substitute for overriding CORE::GLOBAL::die().
1358 This strange action at a distance may be fixed in a future release
1359 so that C<$SIG{__DIE__}> is only called if your program is about
1360 to exit, as was the original intent. Any other use is deprecated.
1362 C<__DIE__>/C<__WARN__> handlers are very special in one respect:
1363 they may be called to report (probable) errors found by the parser.
1364 In such a case the parser may be in inconsistent state, so any
1365 attempt to evaluate Perl code from such a handler will probably
1366 result in a segfault. This means that warnings or errors that
1367 result from parsing Perl should be used with extreme caution, like
1370 require Carp if defined $^S;
1371 Carp::confess("Something wrong") if defined &Carp::confess;
1372 die "Something wrong, but could not load Carp to give backtrace...
1373 To see backtrace try starting Perl with -MCarp switch";
1375 Here the first line will load Carp I<unless> it is the parser who
1376 called the handler. The second line will print backtrace and die if
1377 Carp was available. The third line will be executed only if Carp was
1380 See L<perlfunc/die>, L<perlfunc/warn>, L<perlfunc/eval>, and
1381 L<warnings> for additional information.
1385 =head2 Error Indicators
1387 The variables C<$@>, C<$!>, C<$^E>, and C<$?> contain information
1388 about different types of error conditions that may appear during
1389 execution of a Perl program. The variables are shown ordered by
1390 the "distance" between the subsystem which reported the error and
1391 the Perl process. They correspond to errors detected by the Perl
1392 interpreter, C library, operating system, or an external program,
1395 To illustrate the differences between these variables, consider the
1396 following Perl expression, which uses a single-quoted string:
1399 open my $pipe, "/cdrom/install |" or die $!;
1401 close $pipe or die "bad pipe: $?, $!";
1404 After execution of this statement all 4 variables may have been set.
1406 C<$@> is set if the string to be C<eval>-ed did not compile (this
1407 may happen if C<open> or C<close> were imported with bad prototypes),
1408 or if Perl code executed during evaluation die()d . In these cases
1409 the value of $@ is the compile error, or the argument to C<die>
1410 (which will interpolate C<$!> and C<$?>!). (See also L<Fatal>,
1413 When the eval() expression above is executed, open(), C<< <PIPE> >>,
1414 and C<close> are translated to calls in the C run-time library and
1415 thence to the operating system kernel. C<$!> is set to the C library's
1416 C<errno> if one of these calls fails.
1418 Under a few operating systems, C<$^E> may contain a more verbose
1419 error indicator, such as in this case, "CDROM tray not closed."
1420 Systems that do not support extended error messages leave C<$^E>
1423 Finally, C<$?> may be set to non-0 value if the external program
1424 F</cdrom/install> fails. The upper eight bits reflect specific
1425 error conditions encountered by the program (the program's exit()
1426 value). The lower eight bits reflect mode of failure, like signal
1427 death and core dump information See wait(2) for details. In
1428 contrast to C<$!> and C<$^E>, which are set only if error condition
1429 is detected, the variable C<$?> is set on each C<wait> or pipe
1430 C<close>, overwriting the old value. This is more like C<$@>, which
1431 on every eval() is always set on failure and cleared on success.
1433 For more details, see the individual descriptions at C<$@>, C<$!>, C<$^E>,
1436 =head2 Technical Note on the Syntax of Variable Names
1438 Variable names in Perl can have several formats. Usually, they
1439 must begin with a letter or underscore, in which case they can be
1440 arbitrarily long (up to an internal limit of 251 characters) and
1441 may contain letters, digits, underscores, or the special sequence
1442 C<::> or C<'>. In this case, the part before the last C<::> or
1443 C<'> is taken to be a I<package qualifier>; see L<perlmod>.
1445 Perl variable names may also be a sequence of digits or a single
1446 punctuation or control character. These names are all reserved for
1447 special uses by Perl; for example, the all-digits names are used
1448 to hold data captured by backreferences after a regular expression
1449 match. Perl has a special syntax for the single-control-character
1450 names: It understands C<^X> (caret C<X>) to mean the control-C<X>
1451 character. For example, the notation C<$^W> (dollar-sign caret
1452 C<W>) is the scalar variable whose name is the single character
1453 control-C<W>. This is better than typing a literal control-C<W>
1456 Finally, new in Perl 5.6, Perl variable names may be alphanumeric
1457 strings that begin with control characters (or better yet, a caret).
1458 These variables must be written in the form C<${^Foo}>; the braces
1459 are not optional. C<${^Foo}> denotes the scalar variable whose
1460 name is a control-C<F> followed by two C<o>'s. These variables are
1461 reserved for future special uses by Perl, except for the ones that
1462 begin with C<^_> (control-underscore or caret-underscore). No
1463 control-character name that begins with C<^_> will acquire a special
1464 meaning in any future version of Perl; such names may therefore be
1465 used safely in programs. C<$^_> itself, however, I<is> reserved.
1467 Perl identifiers that begin with digits, control characters, or
1468 punctuation characters are exempt from the effects of the C<package>
1469 declaration and are always forced to be in package C<main>; they are
1470 also exempt from C<strict 'vars'> errors. A few other names are also
1471 exempt in these ways:
1479 In particular, the new special C<${^_XYZ}> variables are always taken
1480 to be in package C<main>, regardless of any C<package> declarations
1485 Due to an unfortunate accident of Perl's implementation, C<use
1486 English> imposes a considerable performance penalty on all regular
1487 expression matches in a program, regardless of whether they occur
1488 in the scope of C<use English>. For that reason, saying C<use
1489 English> in libraries is strongly discouraged. See the
1490 Devel::SawAmpersand module documentation from CPAN
1491 ( http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Devel/ )
1492 for more information.
1494 Having to even think about the C<$^S> variable in your exception
1495 handlers is simply wrong. C<$SIG{__DIE__}> as currently implemented
1496 invites grievous and difficult to track down errors. Avoid it
1497 and use an C<END{}> or CORE::GLOBAL::die override instead.