=item B<Use C from Perl?>
-Read L<perlcall> and L<perlxs>.
+Read L<perlxstut>, L<perlxs>, L<h2xs>, L<perlguts>, and L<perlapi>.
=item B<Use a Unix program from Perl?>
=item B<Use Perl from Perl?>
-Read about L<perlfunc/do> and L<perlfunc/eval> and L<perlfunc/require>
+Read about L<perlfunc/do> and L<perlfunc/eval> and L<perlfunc/require>
and L<perlfunc/use>.
=item B<Use C from C?>
=head2 ROADMAP
-L<Compiling your C program>
+=over 5
+
+=item *
+
+Compiling your C program
+
+=item *
+
+Adding a Perl interpreter to your C program
+
+=item *
+
+Calling a Perl subroutine from your C program
+
+=item *
+
+Evaluating a Perl statement from your C program
+
+=item *
+
+Performing Perl pattern matches and substitutions from your C program
-There's one example in each of the nine sections:
+=item *
-L<Adding a Perl interpreter to your C program>
+Fiddling with the Perl stack from your C program
-L<Calling a Perl subroutine from your C program>
+=item *
-L<Evaluating a Perl statement from your C program>
+Maintaining a persistent interpreter
-L<Performing Perl pattern matches and substitutions from your C program>
+=item *
-L<Fiddling with the Perl stack from your C program>
+Maintaining multiple interpreter instances
-L<Maintaining a persistent interpreter>
+=item *
-L<Maintaining multiple interpreter instances>
+Using Perl modules, which themselves use C libraries, from your C program
-L<Using Perl modules, which themselves use C libraries, from your C program>
+=item *
-L<Embedding Perl under Win32>
+Embedding Perl under Win32
+
+=back
=head2 Compiling your C program
-L/usr/local/lib/perl5/i586-linux/5.003/CORE
-o interp interp.c -lperl -lm
-(That's all one line.) On my DEC Alpha running 5.003_05, the incantation
-is a bit different:
+(That's all one line.) On my DEC Alpha running old 5.003_05, the
+incantation is a bit different:
% cc -O2 -Olimit 2900 -DSTANDARD_C -I/usr/local/include
-I/usr/local/lib/perl5/alpha-dec_osf/5.00305/CORE
If the B<ExtUtils::Embed> module isn't part of your Perl distribution,
you can retrieve it from
-http://www.perl.com/perl/CPAN/modules/by-module/ExtUtils::Embed. (If
-this documentation came from your Perl distribution, then you're
+http://www.perl.com/perl/CPAN/modules/by-module/ExtUtils/
+(If this documentation came from your Perl distribution, then you're
running 5.004 or better and you already have it.)
The B<ExtUtils::Embed> kit on CPAN also contains all source code for
In a sense, perl (the C program) is a good example of embedding Perl
(the language), so I'll demonstrate embedding with I<miniperlmain.c>,
-from the source distribution. Here's a bastardized, nonportable
+included in the source distribution. Here's a bastardized, non-portable
version of I<miniperlmain.c> containing the essentials of embedding:
#include <EXTERN.h> /* from the Perl distribution */
int main(int argc, char **argv, char **env)
{
+ PERL_SYS_INIT3(&argc,&argv,&env);
my_perl = perl_alloc();
perl_construct(my_perl);
+ PL_exit_flags |= PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END;
perl_parse(my_perl, NULL, argc, argv, (char **)NULL);
perl_run(my_perl);
perl_destruct(my_perl);
perl_free(my_perl);
+ PERL_SYS_TERM();
}
Notice that we don't use the C<env> pointer. Normally handed to
C<perl_parse> as its final argument, C<env> here is replaced by
-C<NULL>, which means that the current environment will be used.
+C<NULL>, which means that the current environment will be used. The macros
+PERL_SYS_INIT3() and PERL_SYS_TERM() provide system-specific tune up
+of the C runtime environment necessary to run Perl interpreters; since
+PERL_SYS_INIT3() may change C<env>, it may be more appropriate to provide
+C<env> as an argument to perl_parse().
Now compile this program (I'll call it I<interp.c>) into an executable:
You can also read and execute Perl statements from a file while in the
midst of your C program, by placing the filename in I<argv[1]> before
-calling I<perl_run()>.
+calling I<perl_run>.
=head2 Calling a Perl subroutine from your C program
-To call individual Perl subroutines, you can use any of the B<perl_call_*>
-functions documented in the L<perlcall> manpage.
-In this example we'll use I<perl_call_argv>.
+To call individual Perl subroutines, you can use any of the B<call_*>
+functions documented in L<perlcall>.
+In this example we'll use C<call_argv>.
That's shown below, in a program I'll call I<showtime.c>.
int main(int argc, char **argv, char **env)
{
char *args[] = { NULL };
+ PERL_SYS_INIT3(&argc,&argv,&env);
my_perl = perl_alloc();
perl_construct(my_perl);
perl_parse(my_perl, NULL, argc, argv, NULL);
+ PL_exit_flags |= PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END;
/*** skipping perl_run() ***/
- perl_call_argv("showtime", G_DISCARD | G_NOARGS, args);
+ call_argv("showtime", G_DISCARD | G_NOARGS, args);
perl_destruct(my_perl);
perl_free(my_perl);
+ PERL_SYS_TERM();
}
where I<showtime> is a Perl subroutine that takes no arguments (that's the
(the beginning of the Unix epoch), and the moment I began writing this
sentence.
-In this particular case we don't have to call I<perl_run>, but in
-general it's considered good practice to ensure proper initialization
-of library code, including execution of all object C<DESTROY> methods
-and package C<END {}> blocks.
+In this particular case we don't have to call I<perl_run>, as we set
+the PL_exit_flag PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END which executes END blocks in
+perl_destruct.
If you want to pass arguments to the Perl subroutine, you can add
strings to the C<NULL>-terminated C<args> list passed to
-I<perl_call_argv>. For other data types, or to examine return values,
-you'll need to manipulate the Perl stack. That's demonstrated in the
-last section of this document: L<Fiddling with the Perl stack from
-your C program>.
+I<call_argv>. For other data types, or to examine return values,
+you'll need to manipulate the Perl stack. That's demonstrated in
+L<Fiddling with the Perl stack from your C program>.
=head2 Evaluating a Perl statement from your C program
Perl provides two API functions to evaluate pieces of Perl code.
-These are L<perlguts/perl_eval_sv()> and L<perlguts/perl_eval_pv()>.
+These are L<perlapi/eval_sv> and L<perlapi/eval_pv>.
Arguably, these are the only routines you'll ever need to execute
-snippets of Perl code from within your C program. Your code can be
-as long as you wish; it can contain multiple statements; it can employ
-L<perlfunc/use>, L<perlfunc/require> and L<perlfunc/do> to include
-external Perl files.
+snippets of Perl code from within your C program. Your code can be as
+long as you wish; it can contain multiple statements; it can employ
+L<perlfunc/use>, L<perlfunc/require>, and L<perlfunc/do> to
+include external Perl files.
-I<perl_eval_pv()> lets us evaluate individual Perl strings, and then
+I<eval_pv> lets us evaluate individual Perl strings, and then
extract variables for coercion into C types. The following program,
I<string.c>, executes three Perl strings, extracting an C<int> from
the first, a C<float> from the second, and a C<char *> from the third.
#include <EXTERN.h>
#include <perl.h>
-
+
static PerlInterpreter *my_perl;
-
+
main (int argc, char **argv, char **env)
{
char *embedding[] = { "", "-e", "0" };
-
+
+ PERL_SYS_INIT3(&argc,&argv,&env);
my_perl = perl_alloc();
perl_construct( my_perl );
-
+
perl_parse(my_perl, NULL, 3, embedding, NULL);
+ PL_exit_flags |= PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END;
perl_run(my_perl);
-
+
/** Treat $a as an integer **/
- perl_eval_pv("$a = 3; $a **= 2", TRUE);
- printf("a = %d\n", SvIV(perl_get_sv("a", FALSE)));
-
+ eval_pv("$a = 3; $a **= 2", TRUE);
+ printf("a = %d\n", SvIV(get_sv("a", FALSE)));
+
/** Treat $a as a float **/
- perl_eval_pv("$a = 3.14; $a **= 2", TRUE);
- printf("a = %f\n", SvNV(perl_get_sv("a", FALSE)));
-
+ eval_pv("$a = 3.14; $a **= 2", TRUE);
+ printf("a = %f\n", SvNV(get_sv("a", FALSE)));
+
/** Treat $a as a string **/
- perl_eval_pv("$a = 'rekcaH lreP rehtonA tsuJ'; $a = reverse($a);", TRUE);
- printf("a = %s\n", SvPV(perl_get_sv("a", FALSE), na));
-
+ eval_pv("$a = 'rekcaH lreP rehtonA tsuJ'; $a = reverse($a);", TRUE);
+ printf("a = %s\n", SvPV_nolen(get_sv("a", FALSE)));
+
perl_destruct(my_perl);
perl_free(my_perl);
+ PERL_SYS_TERM();
}
-All of those strange functions with I<sv> in their names help convert Perl scalars to C types. They're described in L<perlguts>.
+All of those strange functions with I<sv> in their names help convert Perl scalars to C types. They're described in L<perlguts> and L<perlapi>.
If you compile and run I<string.c>, you'll see the results of using
I<SvIV()> to create an C<int>, I<SvNV()> to create a C<float>, and
a = Just Another Perl Hacker
In the example above, we've created a global variable to temporarily
-store the computed value of our eval'd expression. It is also
+store the computed value of our eval'ed expression. It is also
possible and in most cases a better strategy to fetch the return value
-from L<perl_eval_pv> instead. Example:
+from I<eval_pv()> instead. Example:
...
- SV *val = perl_eval_pv("reverse 'rekcaH lreP rehtonA tsuJ'", TRUE);
- printf("%s\n", SvPV(val,na));
+ SV *val = eval_pv("reverse 'rekcaH lreP rehtonA tsuJ'", TRUE);
+ printf("%s\n", SvPV_nolen(val));
...
This way, we avoid namespace pollution by not creating global
=head2 Performing Perl pattern matches and substitutions from your C program
-The I<perl_eval_sv()> function lets us evaluate chunks of Perl code, so we can
+The I<eval_sv()> function lets us evaluate strings of Perl code, so we can
define some functions that use it to "specialize" in matches and
substitutions: I<match()>, I<substitute()>, and I<matches()>.
- char match(SV *string, char *pattern);
+ I32 match(SV *string, char *pattern);
Given a string and a pattern (e.g., C<m/clasp/> or C</\b\w*\b/>, which
in your C program might appear as "/\\b\\w*\\b/"), match()
Given a pointer to an C<SV> and an C<=~> operation (e.g.,
C<s/bob/robert/g> or C<tr[A-Z][a-z]>), substitute() modifies the string
-within the C<AV> at according to the operation, returning the number of substitutions
+within the C<SV> as according to the operation, returning the number of substitutions
made.
int matches(SV *string, char *pattern, AV **matches);
Given an C<SV>, a pattern, and a pointer to an empty C<AV>,
-matches() evaluates C<$string =~ $pattern> in an array context, and
+matches() evaluates C<$string =~ $pattern> in a list context, and
fills in I<matches> with the array elements, returning the number of matches found.
Here's a sample program, I<match.c>, that uses all three (long lines have
#include <EXTERN.h>
#include <perl.h>
-
- /** my_perl_eval_sv(code, error_check)
- ** kinda like perl_eval_sv(),
+
+ static PerlInterpreter *my_perl;
+
+ /** my_eval_sv(code, error_check)
+ ** kinda like eval_sv(),
** but we pop the return value off the stack
**/
- SV* my_perl_eval_sv(SV *sv, I32 croak_on_error)
+ SV* my_eval_sv(SV *sv, I32 croak_on_error)
{
dSP;
SV* retval;
-
+
+
PUSHMARK(SP);
- perl_eval_sv(sv, G_SCALAR);
-
+ eval_sv(sv, G_SCALAR);
+
SPAGAIN;
retval = POPs;
PUTBACK;
-
- if (croak_on_error && SvTRUE(GvSV(errgv)))
- croak(SvPVx(GvSV(errgv), na));
-
+
+ if (croak_on_error && SvTRUE(ERRSV))
+ croak(SvPVx_nolen(ERRSV));
+
return retval;
}
-
+
/** match(string, pattern)
**
** Used for matches in a scalar context.
**
** Returns 1 if the match was successful; 0 otherwise.
**/
-
+
I32 match(SV *string, char *pattern)
{
- SV *command = NEWSV(1099, 0), *retval;
-
+ SV *command = newSV(0), *retval;
+
sv_setpvf(command, "my $string = '%s'; $string =~ %s",
- SvPV(string,na), pattern);
-
- retval = my_perl_eval_sv(command, TRUE);
+ SvPV_nolen(string), pattern);
+
+ retval = my_eval_sv(command, TRUE);
SvREFCNT_dec(command);
-
+
return SvIV(retval);
}
-
+
/** substitute(string, pattern)
**
** Used for =~ operations that modify their left-hand side (s/// and tr///)
** Returns the number of successful matches, and
** modifies the input string if there were any.
**/
-
+
I32 substitute(SV **string, char *pattern)
{
- SV *command = NEWSV(1099, 0), *retval;
-
+ SV *command = newSV(0), *retval;
+
sv_setpvf(command, "$string = '%s'; ($string =~ %s)",
- SvPV(*string,na), pattern);
-
- retval = my_perl_eval_sv(command, TRUE);
+ SvPV_nolen(*string), pattern);
+
+ retval = my_eval_sv(command, TRUE);
SvREFCNT_dec(command);
-
- *string = perl_get_sv("string", FALSE);
+
+ *string = get_sv("string", FALSE);
return SvIV(retval);
}
-
+
/** matches(string, pattern, matches)
**
- ** Used for matches in an array context.
+ ** Used for matches in a list context.
**
** Returns the number of matches,
** and fills in **matches with the matching substrings
**/
-
+
I32 matches(SV *string, char *pattern, AV **match_list)
{
- SV *command = NEWSV(1099, 0);
+ SV *command = newSV(0);
I32 num_matches;
-
+
sv_setpvf(command, "my $string = '%s'; @array = ($string =~ %s)",
- SvPV(string,na), pattern);
-
- my_perl_eval_sv(command, TRUE);
+ SvPV_nolen(string), pattern);
+
+ my_eval_sv(command, TRUE);
SvREFCNT_dec(command);
-
- *match_list = perl_get_av("array", FALSE);
+
+ *match_list = get_av("array", FALSE);
num_matches = av_len(*match_list) + 1; /** assume $[ is 0 **/
-
+
return num_matches;
}
-
+
main (int argc, char **argv, char **env)
{
- PerlInterpreter *my_perl = perl_alloc();
char *embedding[] = { "", "-e", "0" };
AV *match_list;
I32 num_matches, i;
- SV *text = NEWSV(1099,0);
-
+ SV *text;
+
+ PERL_SYS_INIT3(&argc,&argv,&env);
+ my_perl = perl_alloc();
perl_construct(my_perl);
perl_parse(my_perl, NULL, 3, embedding, NULL);
-
- sv_setpv(text, "When he is at a convenience store and the bill comes to some amount like 76 cents, Maynard is aware that there is something he *should* do, something that will enable him to get back a quarter, but he has no idea *what*. He fumbles through his red squeezey changepurse and gives the boy three extra pennies with his dollar, hoping that he might luck into the correct amount. The boy gives him back two of his own pennies and then the big shiny quarter that is his prize. -RICHH");
-
+ PL_exit_flags |= PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END;
+
+ text = newSV(0);
+ sv_setpv(text, "When he is at a convenience store and the "
+ "bill comes to some amount like 76 cents, Maynard is "
+ "aware that there is something he *should* do, something "
+ "that will enable him to get back a quarter, but he has "
+ "no idea *what*. He fumbles through his red squeezey "
+ "changepurse and gives the boy three extra pennies with "
+ "his dollar, hoping that he might luck into the correct "
+ "amount. The boy gives him back two of his own pennies "
+ "and then the big shiny quarter that is his prize. "
+ "-RICHH");
+
if (match(text, "m/quarter/")) /** Does text contain 'quarter'? **/
printf("match: Text contains the word 'quarter'.\n\n");
else
printf("match: Text doesn't contain the word 'quarter'.\n\n");
-
+
if (match(text, "m/eighth/")) /** Does text contain 'eighth'? **/
printf("match: Text contains the word 'eighth'.\n\n");
else
printf("match: Text doesn't contain the word 'eighth'.\n\n");
-
+
/** Match all occurrences of /wi../ **/
num_matches = matches(text, "m/(wi..)/g", &match_list);
printf("matches: m/(wi..)/g found %d matches...\n", num_matches);
-
+
for (i = 0; i < num_matches; i++)
- printf("match: %s\n", SvPV(*av_fetch(match_list, i, FALSE),na));
+ printf("match: %s\n", SvPV_nolen(*av_fetch(match_list, i, FALSE)));
printf("\n");
-
+
/** Remove all vowels from text **/
num_matches = substitute(&text, "s/[aeiou]//gi");
if (num_matches) {
printf("substitute: s/[aeiou]//gi...%d substitutions made.\n",
num_matches);
- printf("Now text is: %s\n\n", SvPV(text,na));
+ printf("Now text is: %s\n\n", SvPV_nolen(text));
}
-
+
/** Attempt a substitution **/
if (!substitute(&text, "s/Perl/C/")) {
printf("substitute: s/Perl/C...No substitution made.\n\n");
}
-
+
SvREFCNT_dec(text);
- perl_destruct_level = 1;
+ PL_perl_destruct_level = 1;
perl_destruct(my_perl);
perl_free(my_perl);
+ PERL_SYS_TERM();
}
which produces the output (again, long lines have been wrapped here)
First you'll need to know how to convert between C types and Perl
types, with newSViv() and sv_setnv() and newAV() and all their
-friends. They're described in L<perlguts>.
+friends. They're described in L<perlguts> and L<perlapi>.
Then you'll need to know how to manipulate the Perl stack. That's
described in L<perlcall>.
XPUSHs(sv_2mortal(newSViv(a))); /* push the base onto the stack */
XPUSHs(sv_2mortal(newSViv(b))); /* push the exponent onto stack */
PUTBACK; /* make local stack pointer global */
- perl_call_pv("expo", G_SCALAR); /* call the function */
+ call_pv("expo", G_SCALAR); /* call the function */
SPAGAIN; /* refresh stack pointer */
/* pop the return value from stack */
printf ("%d to the %dth power is %d.\n", a, b, POPi);
{
char *my_argv[] = { "", "power.pl" };
+ PERL_SYS_INIT3(&argc,&argv,&env);
my_perl = perl_alloc();
perl_construct( my_perl );
perl_parse(my_perl, NULL, 2, my_argv, (char **)NULL);
+ PL_exit_flags |= PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END;
perl_run(my_perl);
PerlPower(3, 4); /*** Compute 3 ** 4 ***/
perl_destruct(my_perl);
perl_free(my_perl);
+ PERL_SYS_TERM();
}
the code into that package using L<perlfunc/eval>. In the example
below, each file will only be compiled once. Or, the application
might choose to clean out the symbol table associated with the file
-after it's no longer needed. Using L<perlcall/perl_call_argv>, We'll
+after it's no longer needed. Using L<perlapi/call_argv>, We'll
call the subroutine C<Embed::Persistent::eval_file> which lives in the
file C<persistent.pl> and pass the filename and boolean cleanup/cache
flag as arguments.
#persistent.pl
use strict;
- use vars '%Cache';
+ our %Cache;
+ use Symbol qw(delete_package);
sub valid_package_name {
my($string) = @_;
return "Embed" . $string;
}
- #borrowed from Safe.pm
- sub delete_package {
- my $pkg = shift;
- my ($stem, $leaf);
-
- no strict 'refs';
- $pkg = "main::$pkg\::"; # expand to full symbol table name
- ($stem, $leaf) = $pkg =~ m/(.*::)(\w+::)$/;
-
- my $stem_symtab = *{$stem}{HASH};
-
- delete $stem_symtab->{$leaf};
- }
-
sub eval_file {
my($filename, $delete) = @_;
my $package = valid_package_name($filename);
#define DO_CLEAN 0
#endif
- static PerlInterpreter *perl = NULL;
+ #define BUFFER_SIZE 1024
+
+ static PerlInterpreter *my_perl = NULL;
int
main(int argc, char **argv, char **env)
{
char *embedding[] = { "", "persistent.pl" };
char *args[] = { "", DO_CLEAN, NULL };
- char filename [1024];
+ char filename[BUFFER_SIZE];
int exitstatus = 0;
- if((perl = perl_alloc()) == NULL) {
+ PERL_SYS_INIT3(&argc,&argv,&env);
+ if((my_perl = perl_alloc()) == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "no memory!");
exit(1);
}
- perl_construct(perl);
-
- exitstatus = perl_parse(perl, NULL, 2, embedding, NULL);
+ perl_construct(my_perl);
+ PL_origalen = 1; /* don't let $0 assignment update the proctitle or embedding[0] */
+ exitstatus = perl_parse(my_perl, NULL, 2, embedding, NULL);
+ PL_exit_flags |= PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END;
if(!exitstatus) {
- exitstatus = perl_run(perl);
+ exitstatus = perl_run(my_perl);
- while(printf("Enter file name: ") && gets(filename)) {
+ while(printf("Enter file name: ") &&
+ fgets(filename, BUFFER_SIZE, stdin)) {
+ filename[strlen(filename)-1] = '\0'; /* strip \n */
/* call the subroutine, passing it the filename as an argument */
args[0] = filename;
- perl_call_argv("Embed::Persistent::eval_file",
+ call_argv("Embed::Persistent::eval_file",
G_DISCARD | G_EVAL, args);
/* check $@ */
- if(SvTRUE(GvSV(errgv)))
- fprintf(stderr, "eval error: %s\n", SvPV(GvSV(errgv),na));
+ if(SvTRUE(ERRSV))
+ fprintf(stderr, "eval error: %s\n", SvPV_nolen(ERRSV));
}
}
- perl_destruct_level = 0;
- perl_destruct(perl);
- perl_free(perl);
+ PL_perl_destruct_level = 0;
+ perl_destruct(my_perl);
+ perl_free(my_perl);
+ PERL_SYS_TERM();
exit(exitstatus);
}
% cc -o persistent persistent.c `perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ccopts -e ldopts`
-Here's a example script file:
+Here's an example script file:
#test.pl
my $string = "hello";
foo says: hello
Enter file name: ^C
+=head2 Execution of END blocks
+
+Traditionally END blocks have been executed at the end of the perl_run.
+This causes problems for applications that never call perl_run. Since
+perl 5.7.2 you can specify C<PL_exit_flags |= PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END>
+to get the new behaviour. This also enables the running of END blocks if
+the perl_parse fails and C<perl_destruct> will return the exit value.
+
+=head2 $0 assignments
+
+When a perl script assigns a value to $0 then the perl runtime will
+try to make this value show up as the program name reported by "ps" by
+updating the memory pointed to by the argv passed to perl_parse() and
+also calling API functions like setproctitle() where available. This
+behaviour might not be appropriate when embedding perl and can be
+disabled by assigning the value C<1> to the variable C<PL_origalen>
+before perl_parse() is called.
+
+The F<persistent.c> example above is for instance likely to segfault
+when $0 is assigned to if the C<PL_origalen = 1;> assignment is
+removed. This because perl will try to write to the read only memory
+of the C<embedding[]> strings.
+
=head2 Maintaining multiple interpreter instances
Some rare applications will need to create more than one interpreter
release any resources associated with the interpreter.
The program must take care to ensure that this takes place I<before>
-the next interpreter is constructed. By default, the global variable
-C<perl_destruct_level> is set to C<0>, since extra cleaning isn't
-needed when a program has only one interpreter.
+the next interpreter is constructed. By default, when perl is not
+built with any special options, the global variable
+C<PL_perl_destruct_level> is set to C<0>, since extra cleaning isn't
+usually needed when a program only ever creates a single interpreter
+in its entire lifetime.
-Setting C<perl_destruct_level> to C<1> makes everything squeaky clean:
-
- perl_destruct_level = 1;
+Setting C<PL_perl_destruct_level> to C<1> makes everything squeaky clean:
while(1) {
...
- /* reset global variables here with perl_destruct_level = 1 */
+ /* reset global variables here with PL_perl_destruct_level = 1 */
+ PL_perl_destruct_level = 1;
perl_construct(my_perl);
...
/* clean and reset _everything_ during perl_destruct */
+ PL_perl_destruct_level = 1;
perl_destruct(my_perl);
perl_free(my_perl);
...
}
When I<perl_destruct()> is called, the interpreter's syntax parse tree
-and symbol tables are cleaned up, and global variables are reset.
+and symbol tables are cleaned up, and global variables are reset. The
+second assignment to C<PL_perl_destruct_level> is needed because
+perl_construct resets it to C<0>.
Now suppose we have more than one interpreter instance running at the
-same time. This is feasible, but only if you used the
-C<-DMULTIPLICITY> flag when building Perl. By default, that sets
-C<perl_destruct_level> to C<1>.
+same time. This is feasible, but only if you used the Configure option
+C<-Dusemultiplicity> or the options C<-Dusethreads -Duseithreads> when
+building perl. By default, enabling one of these Configure options
+sets the per-interpreter global variable C<PL_perl_destruct_level> to
+C<1>, so that thorough cleaning is automatic and interpreter variables
+are initialized correctly. Even if you don't intend to run two or
+more interpreters at the same time, but to run them sequentially, like
+in the above example, it is recommended to build perl with the
+C<-Dusemultiplicity> option otherwise some interpreter variables may
+not be initialized correctly between consecutive runs and your
+application may crash.
+
+See also L<perlxs/Thread-aware system interfaces>.
+
+Using C<-Dusethreads -Duseithreads> rather than C<-Dusemultiplicity>
+is more appropriate if you intend to run multiple interpreters
+concurrently in different threads, because it enables support for
+linking in the thread libraries of your system with the interpreter.
Let's give it a try:
int main(int argc, char **argv, char **env)
{
- PerlInterpreter
- *one_perl = perl_alloc(),
- *two_perl = perl_alloc();
+ PerlInterpreter *one_perl, *two_perl;
char *one_args[] = { "one_perl", SAY_HELLO };
char *two_args[] = { "two_perl", SAY_HELLO };
+ PERL_SYS_INIT3(&argc,&argv,&env);
+ one_perl = perl_alloc();
+ two_perl = perl_alloc();
+
+ PERL_SET_CONTEXT(one_perl);
perl_construct(one_perl);
+ PERL_SET_CONTEXT(two_perl);
perl_construct(two_perl);
+ PERL_SET_CONTEXT(one_perl);
perl_parse(one_perl, NULL, 3, one_args, (char **)NULL);
+ PERL_SET_CONTEXT(two_perl);
perl_parse(two_perl, NULL, 3, two_args, (char **)NULL);
+ PERL_SET_CONTEXT(one_perl);
perl_run(one_perl);
+ PERL_SET_CONTEXT(two_perl);
perl_run(two_perl);
+ PERL_SET_CONTEXT(one_perl);
perl_destruct(one_perl);
+ PERL_SET_CONTEXT(two_perl);
perl_destruct(two_perl);
+ PERL_SET_CONTEXT(one_perl);
perl_free(one_perl);
+ PERL_SET_CONTEXT(two_perl);
perl_free(two_perl);
+ PERL_SYS_TERM();
}
+Note the calls to PERL_SET_CONTEXT(). These are necessary to initialize
+the global state that tracks which interpreter is the "current" one on
+the particular process or thread that may be running it. It should
+always be used if you have more than one interpreter and are making
+perl API calls on both interpreters in an interleaved fashion.
+
+PERL_SET_CONTEXT(interp) should also be called whenever C<interp> is
+used by a thread that did not create it (using either perl_alloc(), or
+the more esoteric perl_clone()).
Compile as usual:
Perl and linked C/C++ routines. Let's take a look some pieces of I<perlmain.c>
to see how Perl does this:
+ static void xs_init (pTHX);
- #ifdef __cplusplus
- # define EXTERN_C extern "C"
- #else
- # define EXTERN_C extern
- #endif
-
- static void xs_init _((void));
-
- EXTERN_C void boot_DynaLoader _((CV* cv));
- EXTERN_C void boot_Socket _((CV* cv));
+ EXTERN_C void boot_DynaLoader (pTHX_ CV* cv);
+ EXTERN_C void boot_Socket (pTHX_ CV* cv);
EXTERN_C void
- xs_init()
+ xs_init(pTHX)
{
char *file = __FILE__;
/* DynaLoader is a special case */
% cc -c interp.c `perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ccopts`
% cc -o interp perlxsi.o interp.o `perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ldopts`
-Consult L<perlxs> and L<perlguts> for more details.
+Consult L<perlxs>, L<perlguts>, and L<perlapi> for more details.
=head1 Embedding Perl under Win32
-At the time of this writing, there are two versions of Perl which run
-under Win32. Interfacing to Activeware's Perl library is quite
-different from the examples in this documentation, as significant
-changes were made to the internal Perl API. However, it is possible
-to embed Activeware's Perl runtime, see the Perl for Win32 FAQ:
-http://www.perl.com/perl/faq/win32/Perl_for_Win32_FAQ.html
-
-With the "official" Perl version 5.004 or higher, all the examples
-within this documentation will compile and run untouched, although,
-the build process is slightly different between Unix and Win32.
+In general, all of the source code shown here should work unmodified under
+Windows.
-For starters, backticks don't work under the Win32 native command shell!
+However, there are some caveats about the command-line examples shown.
+For starters, backticks won't work under the Win32 native command shell.
The ExtUtils::Embed kit on CPAN ships with a script called
B<genmake>, which generates a simple makefile to build a program from
-a single C source file. It can be used like so:
+a single C source file. It can be used like this:
C:\ExtUtils-Embed\eg> perl genmake interp.c
C:\ExtUtils-Embed\eg> nmake
C:\ExtUtils-Embed\eg> interp -e "print qq{I'm embedded in Win32!\n}"
-You may wish to use a more robust environment such as the MS Developer
-stdio. In this case, to generate perlxsi.c run:
+You may wish to use a more robust environment such as the Microsoft
+Developer Studio. In this case, run this to generate perlxsi.c:
perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e xsinit
-Create a new project, Insert -> Files into Project: perlxsi.c, perl.lib,
-and your own source files, e.g. interp.c. Typically you'll find
-perl.lib in B<C:\perl\lib\CORE>, if not, you should see the B<CORE>
-directory relative to C<perl -V:archlib>.
-The studio will also need this path so it knows where to find Perl
-include files. This path can be added via the Tools -> Options ->
-Directories menu. Finnally, select Build -> Build interp.exe and
-you're ready to go!
+Create a new project and Insert -> Files into Project: perlxsi.c,
+perl.lib, and your own source files, e.g. interp.c. Typically you'll
+find perl.lib in B<C:\perl\lib\CORE>, if not, you should see the
+B<CORE> directory relative to C<perl -V:archlib>. The studio will
+also need this path so it knows where to find Perl include files.
+This path can be added via the Tools -> Options -> Directories menu.
+Finally, select Build -> Build interp.exe and you're ready to go.
+
+=head1 Hiding Perl_
+
+If you completely hide the short forms forms of the Perl public API,
+add -DPERL_NO_SHORT_NAMES to the compilation flags. This means that
+for example instead of writing
+
+ warn("%d bottles of beer on the wall", bottlecount);
+
+you will have to write the explicit full form
+
+ Perl_warn(aTHX_ "%d bottles of beer on the wall", bottlecount);
+
+(See L<perlguts/Background and PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT for the explanation
+of the C<aTHX_>.> ) Hiding the short forms is very useful for avoiding
+all sorts of nasty (C preprocessor or otherwise) conflicts with other
+software packages (Perl defines about 2400 APIs with these short names,
+take or leave few hundred, so there certainly is room for conflict.)
=head1 MORAL
=head1 AUTHOR
-Jon Orwant and <F<orwant@tpj.com>> and Doug MacEachern <F<dougm@osf.org>>,
-with small contributions from Tim Bunce, Tom Christiansen, Hallvard Furuseth,
-Dov Grobgeld, and Ilya Zakharevich.
-
-Check out Doug's article on embedding in Volume 1, Issue 4 of The Perl
-Journal. Info about TPJ is available from http://tpj.com.
-
-July 17, 1997
+Jon Orwant <F<orwant@media.mit.edu>> and Doug MacEachern
+<F<dougm@covalent.net>>, with small contributions from Tim Bunce, Tom
+Christiansen, Guy Decoux, Hallvard Furuseth, Dov Grobgeld, and Ilya
+Zakharevich.
-Some of this material is excerpted from Jon Orwant's book: I<Perl 5
-Interactive>, Waite Group Press, 1996 (ISBN 1-57169-064-6) and appears
-courtesy of Waite Group Press.
+Doug MacEachern has an article on embedding in Volume 1, Issue 4 of
+The Perl Journal ( http://www.tpj.com/ ). Doug is also the developer of the
+most widely-used Perl embedding: the mod_perl system
+(perl.apache.org), which embeds Perl in the Apache web server.
+Oracle, Binary Evolution, ActiveState, and Ben Sugars's nsapi_perl
+have used this model for Oracle, Netscape and Internet Information
+Server Perl plugins.
=head1 COPYRIGHT
-Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997 Doug MacEachern and Jon Orwant. All
+Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 Doug MacEachern and Jon Orwant. All
Rights Reserved.
-Although destined for release with the standard Perl distribution,
-this document is not public domain, nor is any of Perl and its
-documentation. Permission is granted to freely distribute verbatim
-copies of this document provided that no modifications outside of
-formatting be made, and that this notice remain intact. You are
-permitted and encouraged to use its code and derivatives thereof in
-your own source code for fun or for profit as you see fit.
+Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
+documentation provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
+preserved on all copies.
+
+Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
+documentation under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also
+that they are marked clearly as modified versions, that the authors'
+names and title are unchanged (though subtitles and additional
+authors' names may be added), and that the entire resulting derived
+work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical
+to this one.
+
+Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
+documentation into another language, under the above conditions for
+modified versions.