diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'pod/perlvar.pod')
| -rw-r--r-- | pod/perlvar.pod | 36 |
1 files changed, 27 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/pod/perlvar.pod b/pod/perlvar.pod index 75f4e6d5c2..6a1ed81c5d 100644 --- a/pod/perlvar.pod +++ b/pod/perlvar.pod @@ -432,10 +432,10 @@ status. If used in a numeric context, yields the current value of errno, with all the usual caveats. (This means that you shouldn't depend on the -value of "C<$!>" to be anything in particular unless you've gotten a +value of C<$!> to be anything in particular unless you've gotten a specific error return indicating a system error.) If used in a string context, yields the corresponding system error string. You can assign -to "C<$!>" to set I<errno> if, for instance, you want "C<$!>" to return the +to C<$!> to set I<errno> if, for instance, you want C<"$!"> to return the string for error I<n>, or you want to set the exit value for the die() operator. (Mnemonic: What just went bang?) @@ -443,13 +443,31 @@ operator. (Mnemonic: What just went bang?) =item $^E -More specific information about the last system error than that provided by -C<$!>, if available. (If not, it's just C<$!> again.) -At the moment, this differs from C<$!> under only VMS and OS/2, where it -provides the VMS status value from the last system error, and OS/2 error -code of the last call to OS/2 API either via CRT, or directly from perl. The -caveats mentioned in the description of C<$!> apply here, too. -(Mnemonic: Extra error explanation.) +Error information specific to the current operating system. At +the moment, this differs from C<$!> under only VMS, OS/2, and Win32 +(and for MacPerl). On all other platforms, C<$^E> is always just +the same as C<$!>. + +Under VMS, C<$^E> provides the VMS status value from the last +system error. This is more specific information about the last +system error than that provided by C<$!>. This is particularly +important when C<$!> is set to E<EVMSERR>. + +Under OS/2, C<$^E> is set based on the value returned by the OS/2 +call C<_syserrno()> only when a call into the OS/2 API generates +an error. In this case, C<$!> is set to a special value to +indicate that C<$^E> should be checked. Otherwise, C<$^E> is +just the same as C<$!>. + +Under Win32, C<$^E> always returns the last error information +reported by the Win32 call C<GetLastError()> which describes +the last error from within the Win32 API. Most Win32-specific +code will report errors via C<$^E>. ANSI C and UNIX-like calls +set C<errno> and so most portable Perl code will report errors +via C<$!>. + +Caveats mentioned in the description of C<$!> generally apply to +C<$^E>, also. (Mnemonic: Extra error explanation.) =item $EVAL_ERROR |