''' Beginning of part 3
-''' $Header: perl.man.3,v 3.0.1.3 89/12/21 20:10:12 lwall Locked $
+''' $Header: perl_man.3,v 3.0.1.6 90/03/27 16:17:56 lwall Locked $
'''
''' $Log: perl.man.3,v $
+''' Revision 3.0.1.6 90/03/27 16:17:56 lwall
+''' patch16: MSDOS support
+'''
+''' Revision 3.0.1.5 90/03/12 16:52:21 lwall
+''' patch13: documented that print $filehandle &foo is ambiguous
+''' patch13: added splice operator: @oldelems = splice(@array,$offset,$len,LIST)
+'''
+''' Revision 3.0.1.4 90/02/28 18:00:09 lwall
+''' patch9: added pipe function
+''' patch9: documented how to handle arbitrary weird characters in filenames
+''' patch9: documented the unflushed buffers problem on piped opens
+''' patch9: documented how to force top of page
+'''
''' Revision 3.0.1.3 89/12/21 20:10:12 lwall
''' patch7: documented that s`pat`repl` does command substitution on replacement
''' patch7: documented that $timeleft from select() is likely not implemented
.fi
Explicitly closing any piped filehandle causes the parent process to wait for the
child to finish, and returns the status value in $?.
+Note: on any operation which may do a fork,
+unflushed buffers remain unflushed in both
+processes, which means you may need to set $| to
+avoid duplicate output.
+.Sp
+The filename that is passed to open will have leading and trailing
+whitespace deleted.
+In order to open a file with arbitrary weird characters in it, it's necessary
+to protect any leading and trailing whitespace thusly:
+.nf
+
+.ne 2
+ $file =~ s#^(\es)#./$1#;
+ open(FOO, "< $file\e0");
+
+.fi
.Ip "opendir(DIRHANDLE,EXPR)" 8 3
Opens a directory named EXPR for processing by readdir(), telldir(), seekdir(),
rewinddir() and closedir().
DIRHANDLEs have their own namespace separate from FILEHANDLEs.
.Ip "ord(EXPR)" 8 4
.Ip "ord EXPR" 8
-Returns the ascii value of the first character of EXPR.
+Returns the numeric ascii value of the first character of EXPR.
If EXPR is omitted, uses $_.
.Ip "pack(TEMPLATE,LIST)" 8 4
Takes an array or list of values and packs it into a binary structure,
.fi
The same template may generally also be used in the unpack function.
+.Ip "pipe(READHANDLE,WRITEHANDLE)" 8 3
+Opens a pair of connected pipes like the corresponding system call.
+Note that if you set up a loop of piped processes, deadlock can occur
+unless you are very careful.
+In addition, note that perl's pipes use stdio buffering, so you may need
+to set $| to flush your WRITEHANDLE after each command, depending on
+the application.
+[Requires version 3.0 patchlevel 9.]
.Ip "pop(ARRAY)" 8
.Ip "pop ARRAY" 8 6
Pops and returns the last value of the array, shortening the array by 1.
Returns non-zero if successful.
FILEHANDLE may be a scalar variable name, in which case the variable contains
the name of the filehandle, thus introducing one level of indirection.
+(NOTE: If FILEHANDLE is a variable and the next token is a term, it may be
+misinterpreted as an operator unless you interpose a + or put parens around
+the arguments.)
If FILEHANDLE is omitted, prints by default to standard output (or to the
last selected output channel\*(--see select()).
If LIST is also omitted, prints $_ to
Note that, because print takes a LIST, anything in the LIST is evaluated
in an array context, and any subroutine that you call will have one or more
of its expressions evaluated in an array context.
+Also be careful not to follow the print keyword with a left parenthesis
+unless you want the corresponding right parenthesis to terminate the
+arguments to the print--interpose a + or put parens around all the arguments.
.Ip "printf(FILEHANDLE LIST)" 8 10
.Ip "printf(LIST)" 8
.Ip "printf FILEHANDLE LIST" 8
# prints AbelAxedCainPunishedcatchaseddoggonetoxyz
.fi
+.Ip "splice(ARRAY,OFFSET,LENGTH,LIST)" 8 8
+.Ip "splice(ARRAY,OFFSET,LENGTH)" 8
+.Ip "splice(ARRAY,OFFSET)" 8
+Removes the elements designated by OFFSET and LENGTH from an array, and
+replaces them with the elements of LIST, if any.
+Returns the elements removed from the array.
+The array grows or shrinks as necessary.
+If LENGTH is omitted, removes everything from OFFSET onward.
+The following equivalencies hold (assuming $[ == 0):
+.nf
+
+ push(@a,$x,$y)\h'|3.5i'splice(@a,$#x+1,0,$x,$y)
+ pop(@a)\h'|3.5i'splice(@a,-1)
+ shift(@a)\h'|3.5i'splice(@a,0,1)
+ unshift(@a,$x,$y)\h'|3.5i'splice(@a,0,0,$x,$y)
+ $a[$x] = $y\h'|3.5i'splice(@a,$x,1,$y);
+
+Example, assuming array lengths are passed before arrays:
+
+ sub aeq { # compare two array values
+ local(@a) = splice(@_,0,shift);
+ local(@b) = splice(@_,0,shift);
+ return 0 unless @a == @b; # same len?
+ while (@a) {
+ return 0 if pop(@a) ne pop(@b);
+ }
+ return 1;
+ }
+ if (&aeq($len,@foo[1..$len],0+@bar,@bar)) { ... }
+
+.fi
.Ip "split(/PATTERN/,EXPR,LIMIT)" 8 8
.Ip "split(/PATTERN/,EXPR)" 8 8
.Ip "split(/PATTERN/)" 8
.Ip "split" 8
Splits a string into an array of strings, and returns it.
(If not in an array context, returns the number of fields found and splits
-into the @_ array.)
+into the @_ array.
+(In an array context, you can force the split into @_
+by using ?? as the pattern delimiters, but it still returns the array value.))
If EXPR is omitted, splits the $_ string.
If PATTERN is also omitted, splits on whitespace (/[\ \et\en]+/).
Anything matching PATTERN is taken to be a delimiter separating the fields.
.Sp
Top of form processing is handled automatically:
if there is insufficient room on the current page for the formatted
-record, the page is advanced, a special top-of-page format is used
+record, the page is advanced by writing a form feed,
+a special top-of-page format is used
to format the new page header, and then the record is written.
By default the top-of-page format is \*(L"top\*(R", but it
may be set to the
format of your choice by assigning the name to the $^ variable.
+The number of lines remaining on the current page is in variable $-, which
+can be set to 0 to force a new page.
.Sp
If FILEHANDLE is unspecified, output goes to the current default output channel,
which starts out as