Copy On Write

Message-id: <20020815001035.A69079@plum.flirble.org>
specify "-Accflags='-DPERL_COPY_ON_WRITE'" to use

p4raw-id: //depot/perl@17728

1 files changed, 7 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/pod/perlapi.pod b/pod/perlapi.pod
index 585c1ace04..464a30dbee 100644
--- a/pod/perlapi.pod
+++ b/pod/perlapi.pod
@@ -3640,8 +3640,13 @@ Found in file sv.c
 
 Undo various types of fakery on an SV: if the PV is a shared string, make
 a private copy; if we're a ref, stop refing; if we're a glob, downgrade to
-an xpvmg. The C<flags> parameter gets passed to  C<sv_unref_flags()>
-when unrefing. C<sv_force_normal> calls this function with flags set to 0.
+an xpvmg; if we're a copy-on-write scalar, this is the on-write time when
+we do the copy, and is also used locally. If C<SV_COW_DROP_PV> is set
+then a copy-on-write scalar drops its PV buffer (if any) and becomes
+SvPOK_off rather than making a copy. (Used where this scalar is about to be
+set to some other value. In addtion, the C<flags> parameter gets passed to
+C<sv_unref_flags()> when unrefing. C<sv_force_normal> calls this function
+with flags set to 0.
 
 	void	sv_force_normal_flags(SV *sv, U32 flags)