path: root/pod/perlmod.pod

=head1 NAME

perlmod - Perl modules (packages and symbol tables)

=head1 DESCRIPTION

=head2 Packages

Perl provides a mechanism for alternative namespaces to protect
packages from stomping on each other's variables.  In fact, there's
really no such thing as a global variable in Perl .  The package
statement declares the compilation unit as being in the given
namespace.  The scope of the package declaration is from the
declaration itself through the end of the enclosing block, C<eval>,
or file, whichever comes first (the same scope as the my() and
local() operators).  Unqualified dynamic identifiers will be in
this namespace, except for those few identifiers that if unqualified,
default to the main package instead of the current one as described
below.  A package statement affects only dynamic variables--including
those you've used local() on--but I<not> lexical variables created
with my().  Typically it would be the first declaration in a file
included by the C<do>, C<require>, or C<use> operators.  You can
switch into a package in more than one place; it merely influences
which symbol table is used by the compiler for the rest of that
block.  You can refer to variables and filehandles in other packages
by prefixing the identifier with the package name and a double
colon: C<$Package::Variable>.  If the package name is null, the
C<main> package is assumed.  That is, C<$::sail> is equivalent to
C<$main::sail>.

The old package delimiter was a single quote, but double colon is now the
preferred delimiter, in part because it's more readable to humans, and
in part because it's more readable to B<emacs> macros.  It also makes C++
programmers feel like they know what's going on--as opposed to using the
single quote as separator, which was there to make Ada programmers feel
like they knew what's going on.  Because the old-fashioned syntax is still
supported for backwards compatibility, if you try to use a string like
C<"This is $owner's house">, you'll be accessing C<$owner::s>; that is,
the $s variable in package C<owner>, which is probably not what you meant.
Use braces to disambiguate, as in C<"This is ${owner}'s house">.

Packages may themselves contain package separators, as in
C<$OUTER::INNER::var>.  This implies nothing about the order of
name lookups, however.  There are no relative packages: all symbols
are either local to the current package, or must be fully qualified
from the outer package name down.  For instance, there is nowhere
within package C<OUTER> that C<$INNER::var> refers to
C<$OUTER::INNER::var>.  It would treat package C<INNER> as a totally
separate global package.

Only identifiers starting with letters (or underscore) are stored
in a package's symbol table.  All other symbols are kept in package
C<main>, including all punctuation variables, like $_.  In addition,
when unqualified, the identifiers STDIN, STDOUT, STDERR, ARGV,
ARGVOUT, ENV, INC, and SIG are forced to be in package C<main>,
even when used for other purposes than their built-in one.  If you
have a package called C<m>, C<s>, or C<y>, then you can't use the
qualified form of an identifier because it would be instead interpreted
as a pattern match, a substitution, or a transliteration.

Variables beginning with underscore used to be forced into package
main, but we decided it was more useful for package writers to be able
to use leading underscore to indicate private variables and method names.
$_ is still global though.  See also L<perlvar/"Technical Note on the
Syntax of Variable Names">.

C<eval>ed strings are compiled in the package in which the eval() was
compiled.  (Assignments to C<$SIG{}>, however, assume the signal
handler specified is in the C<main> package.  Qualify the signal handler
name if you wish to have a signal handler in a package.)  For an
example, examine F<perldb.pl> in the Perl library.  It initially switches
to the C<DB> package so that the debugger doesn't interfere with variables
in the program you are trying to debug.  At various points, however, it
temporarily switches back to the C<main> package to evaluate various
expressions in the context of the C<main> package (or wherever you came
from).  See L<perldebug>.

The special symbol C<__PACKAGE__> contains the current package, but cannot
(easily) be used to construct variables.

See L<perlsub> for other scoping issues related to my() and local(),
and L<perlref> regarding closures.

=head2 Symbol Tables

The symbol table for a package happens to be stored in the hash of that
name with two colons appended.  The main symbol table's name is thus
C<%main::>, or C<%::> for short.  Likewise symbol table for the nested
package mentioned earlier is named C<%OUTER::INNER::>.

The value in each entry of the hash is what you are referring to when you
use the C<*name> typeglob notation.  In fact, the following have the same
effect, though the first is more efficient because it does the symbol
table lookups at compile time:

    local *main::foo    = *main::bar;
    local $main::{foo}  = $main::{bar};

You can use this to print out all the variables in a package, for
instance.  The standard but antequated F<dumpvar.pl> library and
the CPAN module Devel::Symdump make use of this.

Assignment to a typeglob performs an aliasing operation, i.e.,

    *dick = *richard;

causes variables, subroutines, formats, and file and directory handles
accessible via the identifier C<richard> also to be accessible via the
identifier C<dick>.  If you want to alias only a particular variable or
subroutine, assign a reference instead:

    *dick = \$richard;

Which makes $richard and $dick the same variable, but leaves
@richard and @dick as separate arrays.  Tricky, eh?

This mechanism may be used to pass and return cheap references
into or from subroutines if you won't want to copy the whole
thing.  It only works when assigning to dynamic variables, not
lexicals.

    %some_hash = ();			# can't be my()
    *some_hash = fn( \%another_hash );
    sub fn {
	local *hashsym = shift;
	# now use %hashsym normally, and you
	# will affect the caller's %another_hash
	my %nhash = (); # do what you want
	return \%nhash;
    }

On return, the reference will overwrite the hash slot in the
symbol table specified by the *some_hash typeglob.  This
is a somewhat tricky way of passing around references cheaply
when you won't want to have to remember to dereference variables
explicitly.

Another use of symbol tables is for making "constant" scalars.

    *PI = \3.14159265358979;

Now you cannot alter $PI, which is probably a good thing all in all.
This isn't the same as a constant subroutine, which is subject to
optimization at compile-time.  This isn't.  A constant subroutine is one
prototyped to take no arguments and to return a constant expression.
See L<perlsub> for details on these.  The C<use constant> pragma is a
convenient shorthand for these.

You can say C<*foo{PACKAGE}> and C<*foo{NAME}> to find out what name and
package the *foo symbol table entry comes from.  This may be useful
in a subroutine that gets passed typeglobs as arguments:

    sub identify_typeglob {
        my $glob = shift;
        print 'You gave me ', *{$glob}{PACKAGE}, '::', *{$glob}{NAME}, "\n";
    }
    identify_typeglob *foo;
    identify_typeglob *bar::baz;

This prints

    You gave me main::foo
    You gave me bar::baz

The C<*foo{THING}> notation can also be used to obtain references to the
individual elements of *foo, see L<perlref>.

=head2 Package Constructors and Destructors

There are two special subroutine definitions that function as package
constructors and destructors.  These are the C<BEGIN>, C<INIT>, and
C<END> routines.  The C<sub> is optional for these routines.

A C<BEGIN> subroutine is executed as soon as possible, that is, the moment
it is completely defined, even before the rest of the containing file
is parsed.  You may have multiple C<BEGIN> blocks within a file--they
will execute in order of definition.  Because a C<BEGIN> block executes
immediately, it can pull in definitions of subroutines and such from other
files in time to be visible to the rest of the file.  Once a C<BEGIN>
has run, it is immediately undefined and any code it used is returned to
Perl's memory pool.  This means you can't ever explicitly call a C<BEGIN>.

An C<END> subroutine is executed as late as possible, that is, when
the interpreter is being exited, even if it is exiting as a result of
a die() function.  (But not if it's polymorphing into another program
via C<exec>, or being blown out of the water by a signal--you have to
trap that yourself (if you can).)  You may have multiple C<END> blocks
within a file--they will execute in reverse order of definition; that is:
last in, first out (LIFO).

Inside an C<END> subroutine, C<$?> contains the value that the program is
going to pass to C<exit()>.  You can modify C<$?> to change the exit
value of the program.  Beware of changing C<$?> by accident (e.g. by
running something via C<system>).

When you use the B<-n> and B<-p> switches to Perl, C<BEGIN> and
C<END> work just as they do in B<awk>, as a degenerate case.  As currently
implemented (and subject to change, since its inconvenient at best),
both C<BEGIN> and<END> blocks are run when you use the B<-c> switch
for a compile-only syntax check, although your main code is not.

Similar to C<BEGIN> blocks, C<INIT> blocks are run just before the
Perl runtime begins execution.  For example, the code generators
documented in L<perlcc> make use of C<INIT> blocks to initialize
and resolve pointers to XSUBs.

=head2 Perl Classes

There is no special class syntax in Perl, but a package may act
as a class if it provides subroutines to act as methods.  Such a
package may also derive some of its methods from another class (package)
by listing the other package name(s) in its global @ISA array (which 
must be a package global, not a lexical).

For more on this, see L<perltoot> and L<perlobj>.

=head2 Perl Modules

A module is just a set of related function in a library file a Perl
package with the same name as the file.  It is specifically designed
to be reusable by other modules or programs.  It may do this by
providing a mechanism for exporting some of its symbols into the
symbol table of any package using it.  Or it may function as a class
definition and make its semantics available implicitly through
method calls on the class and its objects, without explicitly
exportating anything.  Or it can do a little of both.

For example, to start a traditional, non-OO module called Some::Module,
create a file called F<Some/Module.pm> and start with this template:

    package Some::Module;  # assumes Some/Module.pm

    use strict;

    BEGIN {
        use Exporter   ();
        use vars       qw($VERSION @ISA @EXPORT @EXPORT_OK %EXPORT_TAGS);

        # set the version for version checking
        $VERSION     = 1.00;
        # if using RCS/CVS, this may be preferred
        $VERSION = do { my @r = (q$Revision: 2.21 $ =~ /\d+/g); sprintf "%d."."%02d" x $#r, @r }; # must be all one line, for MakeMaker

        @ISA         = qw(Exporter);
        @EXPORT      = qw(&func1 &func2 &func4);
        %EXPORT_TAGS = ( );     # eg: TAG => [ qw!name1 name2! ],

        # your exported package globals go here,
        # as well as any optionally exported functions
        @EXPORT_OK   = qw($Var1 %Hashit &func3);
    }
    use vars      @EXPORT_OK;

    # non-exported package globals go here
    use vars      qw(@more $stuff);

    # initialize package globals, first exported ones
    $Var1   = '';
    %Hashit = ();

    # then the others (which are still accessible as $Some::Module::stuff)
    $stuff  = '';
    @more   = ();

    # all file-scoped lexicals must be created before
    # the functions below that use them.

    # file-private lexicals go here
    my $priv_var    = '';
    my %secret_hash = ();

    # here's a file-private function as a closure,
    # callable as &$priv_func;  it cannot be prototyped.
    my $priv_func = sub {
        # stuff goes here.
    };

    # make all your functions, whether exported or not;
    # remember to put something interesting in the {} stubs
    sub func1      {}    # no prototype
    sub func2()    {}    # proto'd void
    sub func3($$)  {}    # proto'd to 2 scalars

    # this one isn't exported, but could be called!
    sub func4(\%)  {}    # proto'd to 1 hash ref

    END { }       # module clean-up code here (global destructor)

    ## YOUR CODE GOES HERE

    1;  # don't forget to return a true value from the file

Then go on to declare and use your variables in functions without
any qualifications.  See L<Exporter> and the L<perlmodlib> for
details on mechanics and style issues in module creation.

Perl modules are included into your program by saying

    use Module;

or

    use Module LIST;

This is exactly equivalent to

    BEGIN { require Module; import Module; }

or

    BEGIN { require Module; import Module LIST; }

As a special case

    use Module ();

is exactly equivalent to

    BEGIN { require Module; }

All Perl module files have the extension F<.pm>.  The C<use> operator
assumes this so you don't have to spell out "F<Module.pm>" in quotes.
This also helps to differentiate new modules from old F<.pl> and
F<.ph> files.  Module names are also capitalized unless they're
functioning as pragmas; pragmas are in effect compiler directives,
and are sometimes called "pragmatic modules" (or even "pragmata"
if you're a classicist).

The two statements:

    require SomeModule;
    require "SomeModule.pm";		

differ from each other in two ways.  In the first case, any double
colons in the module name, such as C<Some::Module>, are translated
into your system's directory separator, usually "/".   The second
case does not, and would have to be specified literally.  The other
difference is that seeing the first C<require> clues in the compiler
that uses of indirect object notation involving "SomeModule", as
in C<$ob = purge SomeModule>, are method calls, not function calls.
(Yes, this really can make a difference.)

Because the C<use> statement implies a C<BEGIN> block, the importing
of semantics happens as soon as the C<use> statement is compiled,
before the rest of the file is compiled.  This is how it is able
to function as a pragma mechanism, and also how modules are able to
declare subroutines that are then visible as list or unary operators for
the rest of the current file.  This will not work if you use C<require>
instead of C<use>.  With C<require> you can get into this problem:

    require Cwd;		# make Cwd:: accessible
    $here = Cwd::getcwd();

    use Cwd;			# import names from Cwd::
    $here = getcwd();

    require Cwd;	    	# make Cwd:: accessible
    $here = getcwd(); 		# oops! no main::getcwd()

In general, C<use Module ()> is recommended over C<require Module>,
because it determines module availability at compile time, not in the
middle of your program's execution.  An exception would be if two modules
each tried to C<use> each other, and each also called a function from
that other module.  In that case, it's easy to use C<require>s instead.

Perl packages may be nested inside other package names, so we can have
package names containing C<::>.  But if we used that package name
directly as a filename it would makes for unwieldy or impossible
filenames on some systems.  Therefore, if a module's name is, say,
C<Text::Soundex>, then its definition is actually found in the library
file F<Text/Soundex.pm>.

Perl modules always have a F<.pm> file, but there may also be
dynamically linked executables (often ending in F<.so>) or autoloaded
subroutine definitions (often ending in F<.al> associated with the
module.  If so, these will be entirely transparent to the user of
the module.  It is the responsibility of the F<.pm> file to load
(or arrange to autoload) any additional functionality.  For example,
although the POSIX module happens to do both dynamic loading and
autoloading, but the user can say just C<use POSIX> to get it all.

=head1 SEE ALSO

See L<perlmodlib> for general style issues related to building Perl
modules and classes, as well as descriptions of the standard library
and CPAN, L<Exporter> for how Perl's standard import/export mechanism
works, L<perltoot> and L<perltootc> for an in-depth tutorial on
creating classes, L<perlobj> for a hard-core reference document on
objects, L<perlsub> for an explanation of functions and scoping,
and L<perlxstut> and L<perlguts> for more information on writing
extension modules.