perllexwarn - Perl Lexical Warnings
=head1 DESCRIPTION
-
+
The C<use warnings> pragma is a replacement for both the command line
flag B<-w> and the equivalent Perl variable, C<$^W>.
The pragma works just like the existing "strict" pragma.
This means that the scope of the warning pragma is limited to the
-enclosing block. It also means that that the pragma setting will not
+enclosing block. It also means that the pragma setting will not
leak across files (via C<use>, C<require> or C<do>). This allows
authors to independently define the degree of warning checks that will
be applied to their module.
doesn't attempt to control the warnings will work unchanged.
All warnings are enabled in a block by either of these:
-
+
use warnings ;
use warnings 'all' ;
-
+
Similarly all warnings are disabled in a block by either of these:
no warnings ;
my $a = "2:" + 3;
-though the result will be 5.
-
With the introduction of lexical warnings, mandatory warnings now become
I<default> warnings. The difference is that although the previously
mandatory warnings are still enabled by default, they can then be
subsequently enabled or disabled with the lexical warning pragma. For
-example, in the code below, an C<"integer overflow"> warning will only
+example, in the code below, an C<"isn't numeric"> warning will only
be reported for the C<$a> variable.
my $a = "2:" + 3;
details of how this flag interacts with lexical warnings.
=item B<-W>
-
+
If the B<-W> flag is used on the command line, it will enable all warnings
throughout the program regardless of whether warnings were disabled
locally using C<no warnings> or C<$^W =0>. This includes all files that get
lexical warnings and C<$^W>, this section will describe how they interact.
How Lexical Warnings interact with B<-w>/C<$^W>:
-
+
=over 5
=item 1.
If none of the three command line flags (B<-w>, B<-W> or B<-X>) that
-control warnings is used and neither C<$^W> or lexical warnings are used,
-then default warnings will be enabled and optional warnings disabled.
+control warnings is used and neither C<$^W> or the C<warnings> pragma
+are used, then default warnings will be enabled and optional warnings
+disabled.
This means that legacy code that doesn't attempt to control the warnings
will work unchanged.
to control warning behavior will still work as is.
=item 3.
-
+
Apart from now being a boolean, the C<$^W> variable operates in exactly
the same horrible uncontrolled global way, except that it cannot
disable/enable default warnings.
=item 4.
-
-If a piece of code is under the control of the lexical warning pragma,
+
+If a piece of code is under the control of the C<warnings> pragma,
both the C<$^W> variable and the B<-w> flag will be ignored for the
scope of the lexical warning.
=item 5.
-
+
The only way to override a lexical warnings setting is with the B<-W>
or B<-X> command line flags.
=back
-The combined effect of 3 & 4 is that it will will allow code which uses
-the lexical warnings pragma to control the warning behavior of $^W-type
+The combined effect of 3 & 4 is that it will allow code which uses
+the C<warnings> pragma to control the warning behavior of $^W-type
code (using a C<local $^W=0>) if it really wants to, but not vice-versa.
-=head1 EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES
-
-The features described in this section are experimental, and so subject
-to change.
-
=head2 Category Hierarchy
-
-A B<tentative> hierarchy of "categories" have been defined to allow groups
-of warnings to be enabled/disabled in isolation. The current
-hierarchy is:
-
- all - +--- unsafe -------+--- taint
- | |
- | +--- substr
- | |
- | +--- signal
- | |
- | +--- closure
- | |
- | +--- overflow
- | |
- | +--- portable
- | |
- | +--- untie
- | |
- | +--- utf8
- |
- +--- io ---------+--- pipe
- | |
- | +--- unopened
- | |
- | +--- closed
- | |
- | +--- newline
- | |
- | +--- exec
- |
- +--- syntax ----+--- ambiguous
- | |
- | +--- semicolon
- | |
- | +--- precedence
- | |
- | +--- reserved
- | |
- | +--- digit
- | |
- | +--- parenthesis
- | |
- | +--- deprecated
- | |
- | +--- printf
- |
- +--- severe ----+--- inplace
- | |
- | +--- internal
- | |
- | +--- debugging
- |
- |--- uninitialized
- |
- +--- void
- |
- +--- recursion
- |
- +--- redefine
- |
- +--- numeric
- |
- +--- once
- |
- +--- misc
+A hierarchy of "categories" have been defined to allow groups of warnings
+to be enabled/disabled in isolation.
+
+The current hierarchy is:
+
+ all -+
+ |
+ +- chmod
+ |
+ +- closure
+ |
+ +- exiting
+ |
+ +- glob
+ |
+ +- io -----------+
+ | |
+ | +- closed
+ | |
+ | +- exec
+ | |
+ | +- newline
+ | |
+ | +- pipe
+ | |
+ | +- unopened
+ |
+ +- misc
+ |
+ +- numeric
+ |
+ +- once
+ |
+ +- overflow
+ |
+ +- pack
+ |
+ +- portable
+ |
+ +- recursion
+ |
+ +- redefine
+ |
+ +- regexp
+ |
+ +- severe -------+
+ | |
+ | +- debugging
+ | |
+ | +- inplace
+ | |
+ | +- internal
+ | |
+ | +- malloc
+ |
+ +- signal
+ |
+ +- substr
+ |
+ +- syntax -------+
+ | |
+ | +- ambiguous
+ | |
+ | +- bareword
+ | |
+ | +- deprecated
+ | |
+ | +- digit
+ | |
+ | +- parenthesis
+ | |
+ | +- precedence
+ | |
+ | +- printf
+ | |
+ | +- prototype
+ | |
+ | +- qw
+ | |
+ | +- reserved
+ | |
+ | +- semicolon
+ |
+ +- taint
+ |
+ +- umask
+ |
+ +- uninitialized
+ |
+ +- unpack
+ |
+ +- untie
+ |
+ +- utf8
+ |
+ +- void
+ |
+ +- y2k
Just like the "strict" pragma any of these categories can be combined
no warnings qw(io syntax untie) ;
Also like the "strict" pragma, if there is more than one instance of the
-warnings pragma in a given scope the cumulative effect is additive.
+C<warnings> pragma in a given scope the cumulative effect is additive.
use warnings qw(void) ; # only "void" warnings enabled
...
...
no warnings qw(void) ; # only "io" warnings enabled
+To determine which category a specific warning has been assigned to see
+L<perldiag>.
=head2 Fatal Warnings
-
+
The presence of the word "FATAL" in the category list will escalate any
-warnings from the category/categories specified that are detected in
-the lexical scope into fatal errors. In the code below, there are 3
-places where a deprecated warning will be detected, the middle one will
-produce a fatal error.
+warnings detected from the categories specified in the lexical scope
+into fatal errors. In the code below, there are 3 places where a
+deprecated warning will be detected, the middle one will produce a
+fatal error.
use warnings ;
-
+
$a = 1 if $a EQ $b ;
-
+
{
use warnings FATAL => qw(deprecated) ;
$a = 1 if $a EQ $b ;
}
-
+
$a = 1 if $a EQ $b ;
-
+
+=head2 Reporting Warnings from a Module
+
+The C<warnings> pragma provides a number of functions that are useful for
+module authors. These are used when you want to report a module-specific
+warning when the calling module has enabled warnings via the C<warnings>
+pragma.
+
+Consider the module C<MyMod::Abc> below.
+
+ package MyMod::Abc;
+
+ use warnings::register;
+
+ sub open {
+ my $path = shift ;
+ if (warnings::enabled() && $path !~ m#^/#) {
+ warnings::warn("changing relative path to /tmp/");
+ $path = "/tmp/$path" ;
+ }
+ }
+
+ 1 ;
+
+The call to C<warnings::register> will create a new warnings category
+called "MyMod::abc", i.e. the new category name matches the module
+name. The C<open> function in the module will display a warning message
+if it gets given a relative path as a parameter. This warnings will only
+be displayed if the code that uses C<MyMod::Abc> has actually enabled
+them with the C<warnings> pragma like below.
+
+ use MyMod::Abc;
+ use warnings 'MyMod::Abc';
+ ...
+ abc::open("../fred.txt");
+
+It is also possible to test whether the pre-defined warnings categories are
+set in the calling module with the C<warnings::enabled> function. Consider
+this snippet of code:
+
+ package MyMod::Abc;
+
+ sub open {
+ if (warnings::enabled("deprecated")) {
+ warnings::warn("deprecated",
+ "open is deprecated, use new instead") ;
+ }
+ new(@_) ;
+ }
+
+ sub new
+ ...
+ 1 ;
+
+The function C<open> has been deprecated, so code has been included to
+display a warning message whenever the calling module has (at least) the
+"deprecated" warnings category enabled. Something like this, say.
+
+ use warnings 'deprecated';
+ use MyMod::Abc;
+ ...
+ MyMod::Abc::open($filename) ;
+
+The C<warnings::warn> function should be used to actually display the
+warnings message. This is because they can make use of the feature that
+allows warnings to be escalated into fatal errors. So in this case
+
+ use MyMod::Abc;
+ use warnings FATAL => 'MyMod::Abc';
+ ...
+ MyMod::Abc::open('../fred.txt');
+
+the C<warnings::warn> function will detect this and die after
+displaying the warning message.
+
=head1 TODO
-
-The experimental features need bottomed out.
perl5db.pl
The debugger saves and restores C<$^W> at runtime. I haven't checked
=head1 SEE ALSO
-L<warnings>.
-
+L<warnings>, L<perldiag>.
+
=head1 AUTHOR
-
+
Paul Marquess