Updated CPANPLUS::Dist::Build to cpan version 0.41_01

[perl5.git] / pod / perlfunc.pod

=head1 NAME
X<function>

perlfunc - Perl builtin functions

=head1 DESCRIPTION

The functions in this section can serve as terms in an expression.
They fall into two major categories: list operators and named unary
operators.  These differ in their precedence relationship with a
following comma.  (See the precedence table in L<perlop>.)  List
operators take more than one argument, while unary operators can never
take more than one argument.  Thus, a comma terminates the argument of
a unary operator, but merely separates the arguments of a list
operator.  A unary operator generally provides a scalar context to its
argument, while a list operator may provide either scalar or list
contexts for its arguments.  If it does both, the scalar arguments will
be first, and the list argument will follow.  (Note that there can ever
be only one such list argument.)  For instance, splice() has three scalar
arguments followed by a list, whereas gethostbyname() has four scalar
arguments.

In the syntax descriptions that follow, list operators that expect a
list (and provide list context for the elements of the list) are shown
with LIST as an argument.  Such a list may consist of any combination
of scalar arguments or list values; the list values will be included
in the list as if each individual element were interpolated at that
point in the list, forming a longer single-dimensional list value.
Commas should separate elements of the LIST.

Any function in the list below may be used either with or without
parentheses around its arguments.  (The syntax descriptions omit the
parentheses.)  If you use the parentheses, the simple (but occasionally
surprising) rule is this: It I<looks> like a function, therefore it I<is> a
function, and precedence doesn't matter.  Otherwise it's a list
operator or unary operator, and precedence does matter.  And whitespace
between the function and left parenthesis doesn't count--so you need to
be careful sometimes:

    print 1+2+4;	# Prints 7.
    print(1+2) + 4;	# Prints 3.
    print (1+2)+4;	# Also prints 3!
    print +(1+2)+4;	# Prints 7.
    print ((1+2)+4);	# Prints 7.

If you run Perl with the B<-w> switch it can warn you about this.  For
example, the third line above produces:

    print (...) interpreted as function at - line 1.
    Useless use of integer addition in void context at - line 1.

A few functions take no arguments at all, and therefore work as neither
unary nor list operators.  These include such functions as C<time>
and C<endpwent>.  For example, C<time+86_400> always means
C<time() + 86_400>.

For functions that can be used in either a scalar or list context,
nonabortive failure is generally indicated in a scalar context by
returning the undefined value, and in a list context by returning the
null list.

Remember the following important rule: There is B<no rule> that relates
the behavior of an expression in list context to its behavior in scalar
context, or vice versa.  It might do two totally different things.
Each operator and function decides which sort of value it would be most
appropriate to return in scalar context.  Some operators return the
length of the list that would have been returned in list context.  Some
operators return the first value in the list.  Some operators return the
last value in the list.  Some operators return a count of successful
operations.  In general, they do what you want, unless you want
consistency.
X<context>

A named array in scalar context is quite different from what would at
first glance appear to be a list in scalar context.  You can't get a list
like C<(1,2,3)> into being in scalar context, because the compiler knows
the context at compile time.  It would generate the scalar comma operator
there, not the list construction version of the comma.  That means it
was never a list to start with.

In general, functions in Perl that serve as wrappers for system calls
of the same name (like chown(2), fork(2), closedir(2), etc.) all return
true when they succeed and C<undef> otherwise, as is usually mentioned
in the descriptions below.  This is different from the C interfaces,
which return C<-1> on failure.  Exceptions to this rule are C<wait>,
C<waitpid>, and C<syscall>.  System calls also set the special C<$!>
variable on failure.  Other functions do not, except accidentally.

=head2 Perl Functions by Category
X<function>

Here are Perl's functions (including things that look like
functions, like some keywords and named operators)
arranged by category.  Some functions appear in more
than one place.

=over 4

=item Functions for SCALARs or strings
X<scalar> X<string> X<character>

C<chomp>, C<chop>, C<chr>, C<crypt>, C<hex>, C<index>, C<lc>, C<lcfirst>,
C<length>, C<oct>, C<ord>, C<pack>, C<q//>, C<qq//>, C<reverse>,
C<rindex>, C<sprintf>, C<substr>, C<tr///>, C<uc>, C<ucfirst>, C<y///>

=item Regular expressions and pattern matching
X<regular expression> X<regex> X<regexp>

C<m//>, C<pos>, C<quotemeta>, C<s///>, C<split>, C<study>, C<qr//>

=item Numeric functions
X<numeric> X<number> X<trigonometric> X<trigonometry>

C<abs>, C<atan2>, C<cos>, C<exp>, C<hex>, C<int>, C<log>, C<oct>, C<rand>,
C<sin>, C<sqrt>, C<srand>

=item Functions for real @ARRAYs
X<array>

C<pop>, C<push>, C<shift>, C<splice>, C<unshift>

=item Functions for list data
X<list>

C<grep>, C<join>, C<map>, C<qw//>, C<reverse>, C<sort>, C<unpack>

=item Functions for real %HASHes
X<hash>

C<delete>, C<each>, C<exists>, C<keys>, C<values>

=item Input and output functions
X<I/O> X<input> X<output> X<dbm>

C<binmode>, C<close>, C<closedir>, C<dbmclose>, C<dbmopen>, C<die>, C<eof>,
C<fileno>, C<flock>, C<format>, C<getc>, C<print>, C<printf>, C<read>,
C<readdir>, C<rewinddir>, C<say>, C<seek>, C<seekdir>, C<select>, C<syscall>,
C<sysread>, C<sysseek>, C<syswrite>, C<tell>, C<telldir>, C<truncate>,
C<warn>, C<write>

=item Functions for fixed length data or records

C<pack>, C<read>, C<syscall>, C<sysread>, C<syswrite>, C<unpack>, C<vec>

=item Functions for filehandles, files, or directories
X<file> X<filehandle> X<directory> X<pipe> X<link> X<symlink>

C<-I<X>>, C<chdir>, C<chmod>, C<chown>, C<chroot>, C<fcntl>, C<glob>,
C<ioctl>, C<link>, C<lstat>, C<mkdir>, C<open>, C<opendir>,
C<readlink>, C<rename>, C<rmdir>, C<stat>, C<symlink>, C<sysopen>,
C<umask>, C<unlink>, C<utime>

=item Keywords related to the control flow of your Perl program
X<control flow>

C<caller>, C<continue>, C<die>, C<do>, C<dump>, C<eval>, C<exit>,
C<goto>, C<last>, C<next>, C<redo>, C<return>, C<sub>, C<wantarray>

=item Keywords related to switch

C<break>, C<continue>, C<given>, C<when>, C<default>

(These are only available if you enable the "switch" feature.
See L<feature> and L<perlsyn/"Switch statements">.)

=item Keywords related to scoping

C<caller>, C<import>, C<local>, C<my>, C<our>, C<state>, C<package>,
C<use>

(C<state> is only available if the "state" feature is enabled. See
L<feature>.)

=item Miscellaneous functions

C<defined>, C<dump>, C<eval>, C<formline>, C<local>, C<my>, C<our>,
C<reset>, C<scalar>, C<state>, C<undef>, C<wantarray>

=item Functions for processes and process groups
X<process> X<pid> X<process id>

C<alarm>, C<exec>, C<fork>, C<getpgrp>, C<getppid>, C<getpriority>, C<kill>,
C<pipe>, C<qx//>, C<setpgrp>, C<setpriority>, C<sleep>, C<system>,
C<times>, C<wait>, C<waitpid>

=item Keywords related to perl modules
X<module>

C<do>, C<import>, C<no>, C<package>, C<require>, C<use>

=item Keywords related to classes and object-orientation
X<object> X<class> X<package>

C<bless>, C<dbmclose>, C<dbmopen>, C<package>, C<ref>, C<tie>, C<tied>,
C<untie>, C<use>

=item Low-level socket functions
X<socket> X<sock>

C<accept>, C<bind>, C<connect>, C<getpeername>, C<getsockname>,
C<getsockopt>, C<listen>, C<recv>, C<send>, C<setsockopt>, C<shutdown>,
C<socket>, C<socketpair>

=item System V interprocess communication functions
X<IPC> X<System V> X<semaphore> X<shared memory> X<memory> X<message>

C<msgctl>, C<msgget>, C<msgrcv>, C<msgsnd>, C<semctl>, C<semget>, C<semop>,
C<shmctl>, C<shmget>, C<shmread>, C<shmwrite>

=item Fetching user and group info
X<user> X<group> X<password> X<uid> X<gid>  X<passwd> X</etc/passwd>

C<endgrent>, C<endhostent>, C<endnetent>, C<endpwent>, C<getgrent>,
C<getgrgid>, C<getgrnam>, C<getlogin>, C<getpwent>, C<getpwnam>,
C<getpwuid>, C<setgrent>, C<setpwent>

=item Fetching network info
X<network> X<protocol> X<host> X<hostname> X<IP> X<address> X<service>

C<endprotoent>, C<endservent>, C<gethostbyaddr>, C<gethostbyname>,
C<gethostent>, C<getnetbyaddr>, C<getnetbyname>, C<getnetent>,
C<getprotobyname>, C<getprotobynumber>, C<getprotoent>,
C<getservbyname>, C<getservbyport>, C<getservent>, C<sethostent>,
C<setnetent>, C<setprotoent>, C<setservent>

=item Time-related functions
X<time> X<date>

C<gmtime>, C<localtime>, C<time>, C<times>

=item Functions new in perl5
X<perl5>

C<abs>, C<bless>, C<break>, C<chomp>, C<chr>, C<continue>, C<default>, 
C<exists>, C<formline>, C<given>, C<glob>, C<import>, C<lc>, C<lcfirst>,
C<lock>, C<map>, C<my>, C<no>, C<our>, C<prototype>, C<qr//>, C<qw//>, C<qx//>,
C<readline>, C<readpipe>, C<ref>, C<sub>*, C<sysopen>, C<tie>, C<tied>, C<uc>,
C<ucfirst>, C<untie>, C<use>, C<when>

* - C<sub> was a keyword in perl4, but in perl5 it is an
operator, which can be used in expressions.

=item Functions obsoleted in perl5

C<dbmclose>, C<dbmopen>

=back

=head2 Portability
X<portability> X<Unix> X<portable>

Perl was born in Unix and can therefore access all common Unix
system calls.  In non-Unix environments, the functionality of some
Unix system calls may not be available, or details of the available
functionality may differ slightly.  The Perl functions affected
by this are:

C<-X>, C<binmode>, C<chmod>, C<chown>, C<chroot>, C<crypt>,
C<dbmclose>, C<dbmopen>, C<dump>, C<endgrent>, C<endhostent>,
C<endnetent>, C<endprotoent>, C<endpwent>, C<endservent>, C<exec>,
C<fcntl>, C<flock>, C<fork>, C<getgrent>, C<getgrgid>, C<gethostbyname>,
C<gethostent>, C<getlogin>, C<getnetbyaddr>, C<getnetbyname>, C<getnetent>,
C<getppid>, C<getpgrp>, C<getpriority>, C<getprotobynumber>,
C<getprotoent>, C<getpwent>, C<getpwnam>, C<getpwuid>,
C<getservbyport>, C<getservent>, C<getsockopt>, C<glob>, C<ioctl>,
C<kill>, C<link>, C<lstat>, C<msgctl>, C<msgget>, C<msgrcv>,
C<msgsnd>, C<open>, C<pipe>, C<readlink>, C<rename>, C<select>, C<semctl>,
C<semget>, C<semop>, C<setgrent>, C<sethostent>, C<setnetent>,
C<setpgrp>, C<setpriority>, C<setprotoent>, C<setpwent>,
C<setservent>, C<setsockopt>, C<shmctl>, C<shmget>, C<shmread>,
C<shmwrite>, C<socket>, C<socketpair>,
C<stat>, C<symlink>, C<syscall>, C<sysopen>, C<system>,
C<times>, C<truncate>, C<umask>, C<unlink>,
C<utime>, C<wait>, C<waitpid>

For more information about the portability of these functions, see
L<perlport> and other available platform-specific documentation.

=head2 Alphabetical Listing of Perl Functions

=over 8

=item -X FILEHANDLE
X<-r>X<-w>X<-x>X<-o>X<-R>X<-W>X<-X>X<-O>X<-e>X<-z>X<-s>X<-f>X<-d>X<-l>X<-p>
X<-S>X<-b>X<-c>X<-t>X<-u>X<-g>X<-k>X<-T>X<-B>X<-M>X<-A>X<-C>

=item -X EXPR

=item -X DIRHANDLE

=item -X

A file test, where X is one of the letters listed below.  This unary
operator takes one argument, either a filename, a filehandle, or a dirhandle, 
and tests the associated file to see if something is true about it.  If the
argument is omitted, tests C<$_>, except for C<-t>, which tests STDIN.
Unless otherwise documented, it returns C<1> for true and C<''> for false, or
the undefined value if the file doesn't exist.  Despite the funny
names, precedence is the same as any other named unary operator.  The
operator may be any of:

    -r	File is readable by effective uid/gid.
    -w	File is writable by effective uid/gid.
    -x	File is executable by effective uid/gid.
    -o	File is owned by effective uid.

    -R	File is readable by real uid/gid.
    -W	File is writable by real uid/gid.
    -X	File is executable by real uid/gid.
    -O	File is owned by real uid.

    -e	File exists.
    -z	File has zero size (is empty).
    -s	File has nonzero size (returns size in bytes).

    -f	File is a plain file.
    -d	File is a directory.
    -l	File is a symbolic link.
    -p	File is a named pipe (FIFO), or Filehandle is a pipe.
    -S	File is a socket.
    -b	File is a block special file.
    -c	File is a character special file.
    -t	Filehandle is opened to a tty.

    -u	File has setuid bit set.
    -g	File has setgid bit set.
    -k	File has sticky bit set.

    -T	File is an ASCII text file (heuristic guess).
    -B	File is a "binary" file (opposite of -T).

    -M	Script start time minus file modification time, in days.
    -A	Same for access time.
    -C	Same for inode change time (Unix, may differ for other platforms)

Example:

    while (<>) {
	chomp;
	next unless -f $_;	# ignore specials
	#...
    }

The interpretation of the file permission operators C<-r>, C<-R>,
C<-w>, C<-W>, C<-x>, and C<-X> is by default based solely on the mode
of the file and the uids and gids of the user.  There may be other
reasons you can't actually read, write, or execute the file: for
example network filesystem access controls, ACLs (access control lists),
read-only filesystems, and unrecognized executable formats.  Note
that the use of these six specific operators to verify if some operation
is possible is usually a mistake, because it may be open to race
conditions.

Also note that, for the superuser on the local filesystems, the C<-r>,
C<-R>, C<-w>, and C<-W> tests always return 1, and C<-x> and C<-X> return 1
if any execute bit is set in the mode.  Scripts run by the superuser
may thus need to do a stat() to determine the actual mode of the file,
or temporarily set their effective uid to something else.

If you are using ACLs, there is a pragma called C<filetest> that may
produce more accurate results than the bare stat() mode bits.
When under the C<use filetest 'access'> the above-mentioned filetests
will test whether the permission can (not) be granted using the
access() family of system calls.  Also note that the C<-x> and C<-X> may
under this pragma return true even if there are no execute permission
bits set (nor any extra execute permission ACLs).  This strangeness is
due to the underlying system calls' definitions. Note also that, due to
the implementation of C<use filetest 'access'>, the C<_> special
filehandle won't cache the results of the file tests when this pragma is
in effect.  Read the documentation for the C<filetest> pragma for more
information.

Note that C<-s/a/b/> does not do a negated substitution.  Saying
C<-exp($foo)> still works as expected, however--only single letters
following a minus are interpreted as file tests.

The C<-T> and C<-B> switches work as follows.  The first block or so of the
file is examined for odd characters such as strange control codes or
characters with the high bit set.  If too many strange characters (>30%)
are found, it's a C<-B> file; otherwise it's a C<-T> file.  Also, any file
containing null in the first block is considered a binary file.  If C<-T>
or C<-B> is used on a filehandle, the current IO buffer is examined
rather than the first block.  Both C<-T> and C<-B> return true on a null
file, or a file at EOF when testing a filehandle.  Because you have to
read a file to do the C<-T> test, on most occasions you want to use a C<-f>
against the file first, as in C<next unless -f $file && -T $file>.

If any of the file tests (or either the C<stat> or C<lstat> operators) are given
the special filehandle consisting of a solitary underline, then the stat
structure of the previous file test (or stat operator) is used, saving
a system call.  (This doesn't work with C<-t>, and you need to remember
that lstat() and C<-l> will leave values in the stat structure for the
symbolic link, not the real file.)  (Also, if the stat buffer was filled by
an C<lstat> call, C<-T> and C<-B> will reset it with the results of C<stat _>).
Example:

    print "Can do.\n" if -r $a || -w _ || -x _;

    stat($filename);
    print "Readable\n" if -r _;
    print "Writable\n" if -w _;
    print "Executable\n" if -x _;
    print "Setuid\n" if -u _;
    print "Setgid\n" if -g _;
    print "Sticky\n" if -k _;
    print "Text\n" if -T _;
    print "Binary\n" if -B _;

As of Perl 5.9.1, as a form of purely syntactic sugar, you can stack file
test operators, in a way that C<-f -w -x $file> is equivalent to
C<-x $file && -w _ && -f _>. (This is only syntax fancy: if you use
the return value of C<-f $file> as an argument to another filetest
operator, no special magic will happen.)

=item abs VALUE
X<abs> X<absolute>

=item abs

Returns the absolute value of its argument.
If VALUE is omitted, uses C<$_>.

=item accept NEWSOCKET,GENERICSOCKET
X<accept>

Accepts an incoming socket connect, just as the accept(2) system call
does.  Returns the packed address if it succeeded, false otherwise.
See the example in L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server Communication">.

On systems that support a close-on-exec flag on files, the flag will
be set for the newly opened file descriptor, as determined by the
value of $^F.  See L<perlvar/$^F>.

=item alarm SECONDS
X<alarm>
X<SIGALRM>
X<timer>

=item alarm

Arranges to have a SIGALRM delivered to this process after the
specified number of wallclock seconds has elapsed.  If SECONDS is not
specified, the value stored in C<$_> is used. (On some machines,
unfortunately, the elapsed time may be up to one second less or more
than you specified because of how seconds are counted, and process
scheduling may delay the delivery of the signal even further.)

Only one timer may be counting at once.  Each call disables the
previous timer, and an argument of C<0> may be supplied to cancel the
previous timer without starting a new one.  The returned value is the
amount of time remaining on the previous timer.

For delays of finer granularity than one second, the Time::HiRes module
(from CPAN, and starting from Perl 5.8 part of the standard
distribution) provides ualarm().  You may also use Perl's four-argument
version of select() leaving the first three arguments undefined, or you
might be able to use the C<syscall> interface to access setitimer(2) if
your system supports it. See L<perlfaq8> for details.

It is usually a mistake to intermix C<alarm> and C<sleep> calls.
(C<sleep> may be internally implemented in your system with C<alarm>)

If you want to use C<alarm> to time out a system call you need to use an
C<eval>/C<die> pair.  You can't rely on the alarm causing the system call to
fail with C<$!> set to C<EINTR> because Perl sets up signal handlers to
restart system calls on some systems.  Using C<eval>/C<die> always works,
modulo the caveats given in L<perlipc/"Signals">.

    eval {
	local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "alarm\n" }; # NB: \n required
	alarm $timeout;
	$nread = sysread SOCKET, $buffer, $size;
	alarm 0;
    };
    if ($@) {
	die unless $@ eq "alarm\n";   # propagate unexpected errors
    	# timed out
    }
    else {
    	# didn't
    }

For more information see L<perlipc>.

=item atan2 Y,X
X<atan2> X<arctangent> X<tan> X<tangent>

Returns the arctangent of Y/X in the range -PI to PI.

For the tangent operation, you may use the C<Math::Trig::tan>
function, or use the familiar relation:

    sub tan { sin($_[0]) / cos($_[0])  }

The return value for C<atan2(0,0)> is implementation-defined; consult
your atan2(3) manpage for more information.

=item bind SOCKET,NAME
X<bind>

Binds a network address to a socket, just as the bind system call
does.  Returns true if it succeeded, false otherwise.  NAME should be a
packed address of the appropriate type for the socket.  See the examples in
L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server Communication">.

=item binmode FILEHANDLE, LAYER
X<binmode> X<binary> X<text> X<DOS> X<Windows>

=item binmode FILEHANDLE

Arranges for FILEHANDLE to be read or written in "binary" or "text"
mode on systems where the run-time libraries distinguish between
binary and text files.  If FILEHANDLE is an expression, the value is
taken as the name of the filehandle.  Returns true on success,
otherwise it returns C<undef> and sets C<$!> (errno).

On some systems (in general, DOS and Windows-based systems) binmode()
is necessary when you're not working with a text file.  For the sake
of portability it is a good idea to always use it when appropriate,
and to never use it when it isn't appropriate.  Also, people can
set their I/O to be by default UTF-8 encoded Unicode, not bytes.

In other words: regardless of platform, use binmode() on binary data,
like for example images.

If LAYER is present it is a single string, but may contain multiple
directives. The directives alter the behaviour of the file handle.
When LAYER is present using binmode on a text file makes sense.

If LAYER is omitted or specified as C<:raw> the filehandle is made
suitable for passing binary data. This includes turning off possible CRLF
translation and marking it as bytes (as opposed to Unicode characters).
Note that, despite what may be implied in I<"Programming Perl"> (the
Camel) or elsewhere, C<:raw> is I<not> simply the inverse of C<:crlf>
-- other layers which would affect the binary nature of the stream are
I<also> disabled. See L<PerlIO>, L<perlrun> and the discussion about the
PERLIO environment variable.

The C<:bytes>, C<:crlf>, and C<:utf8>, and any other directives of the
form C<:...>, are called I/O I<layers>.  The C<open> pragma can be used to
establish default I/O layers.  See L<open>.

I<The LAYER parameter of the binmode() function is described as "DISCIPLINE"
in "Programming Perl, 3rd Edition".  However, since the publishing of this
book, by many known as "Camel III", the consensus of the naming of this
functionality has moved from "discipline" to "layer".  All documentation
of this version of Perl therefore refers to "layers" rather than to
"disciplines".  Now back to the regularly scheduled documentation...>

To mark FILEHANDLE as UTF-8, use C<:utf8> or C<:encoding(utf8)>.
C<:utf8> just marks the data as UTF-8 without further checking,
while C<:encoding(utf8)> checks the data for actually being valid
UTF-8. More details can be found in L<PerlIO::encoding>.

In general, binmode() should be called after open() but before any I/O
is done on the filehandle.  Calling binmode() will normally flush any
pending buffered output data (and perhaps pending input data) on the
handle.  An exception to this is the C<:encoding> layer that
changes the default character encoding of the handle, see L<open>.
The C<:encoding> layer sometimes needs to be called in
mid-stream, and it doesn't flush the stream.  The C<:encoding>
also implicitly pushes on top of itself the C<:utf8> layer because
internally Perl will operate on UTF-8 encoded Unicode characters.

The operating system, device drivers, C libraries, and Perl run-time
system all work together to let the programmer treat a single
character (C<\n>) as the line terminator, irrespective of the external
representation.  On many operating systems, the native text file
representation matches the internal representation, but on some
platforms the external representation of C<\n> is made up of more than
one character.

Mac OS, all variants of Unix, and Stream_LF files on VMS use a single
character to end each line in the external representation of text (even
though that single character is CARRIAGE RETURN on Mac OS and LINE FEED
on Unix and most VMS files). In other systems like OS/2, DOS and the
various flavors of MS-Windows your program sees a C<\n> as a simple C<\cJ>,
but what's stored in text files are the two characters C<\cM\cJ>.  That
means that, if you don't use binmode() on these systems, C<\cM\cJ>
sequences on disk will be converted to C<\n> on input, and any C<\n> in
your program will be converted back to C<\cM\cJ> on output.  This is what
you want for text files, but it can be disastrous for binary files.

Another consequence of using binmode() (on some systems) is that
special end-of-file markers will be seen as part of the data stream.
For systems from the Microsoft family this means that if your binary
data contains C<\cZ>, the I/O subsystem will regard it as the end of
the file, unless you use binmode().

binmode() is not only important for readline() and print() operations,
but also when using read(), seek(), sysread(), syswrite() and tell()
(see L<perlport> for more details).  See the C<$/> and C<$\> variables
in L<perlvar> for how to manually set your input and output
line-termination sequences.

=item bless REF,CLASSNAME
X<bless>

=item bless REF

This function tells the thingy referenced by REF that it is now an object
in the CLASSNAME package.  If CLASSNAME is omitted, the current package
is used.  Because a C<bless> is often the last thing in a constructor,
it returns the reference for convenience.  Always use the two-argument
version if a derived class might inherit the function doing the blessing.
See L<perltoot> and L<perlobj> for more about the blessing (and blessings)
of objects.

Consider always blessing objects in CLASSNAMEs that are mixed case.
Namespaces with all lowercase names are considered reserved for
Perl pragmata.  Builtin types have all uppercase names. To prevent
confusion, you may wish to avoid such package names as well.  Make sure
that CLASSNAME is a true value.

See L<perlmod/"Perl Modules">.

=item break

Break out of a C<given()> block.

This keyword is enabled by the "switch" feature: see L<feature>
for more information.

=item caller EXPR
X<caller> X<call stack> X<stack> X<stack trace>

=item caller

Returns the context of the current subroutine call.  In scalar context,
returns the caller's package name if there is a caller, that is, if
we're in a subroutine or C<eval> or C<require>, and the undefined value
otherwise.  In list context, returns

    # 0         1          2
    ($package, $filename, $line) = caller;

With EXPR, it returns some extra information that the debugger uses to
print a stack trace.  The value of EXPR indicates how many call frames
to go back before the current one.

    #  0         1          2      3            4
    ($package, $filename, $line, $subroutine, $hasargs,

    #  5          6          7            8       9         10
    $wantarray, $evaltext, $is_require, $hints, $bitmask, $hinthash)
     = caller($i);

Here $subroutine may be C<(eval)> if the frame is not a subroutine
call, but an C<eval>.  In such a case additional elements $evaltext and
C<$is_require> are set: C<$is_require> is true if the frame is created by a
C<require> or C<use> statement, $evaltext contains the text of the
C<eval EXPR> statement.  In particular, for an C<eval BLOCK> statement,
$subroutine is C<(eval)>, but $evaltext is undefined.  (Note also that
each C<use> statement creates a C<require> frame inside an C<eval EXPR>
frame.)  $subroutine may also be C<(unknown)> if this particular
subroutine happens to have been deleted from the symbol table.
C<$hasargs> is true if a new instance of C<@_> was set up for the frame.
C<$hints> and C<$bitmask> contain pragmatic hints that the caller was
compiled with.  The C<$hints> and C<$bitmask> values are subject to change
between versions of Perl, and are not meant for external use.

C<$hinthash> is a reference to a hash containing the value of C<%^H> when the
caller was compiled, or C<undef> if C<%^H> was empty. Do not modify the values
of this hash, as they are the actual values stored in the optree.

Furthermore, when called from within the DB package, caller returns more
detailed information: it sets the list variable C<@DB::args> to be the
arguments with which the subroutine was invoked.

Be aware that the optimizer might have optimized call frames away before
C<caller> had a chance to get the information.  That means that C<caller(N)>
might not return information about the call frame you expect it do, for
C<< N > 1 >>.  In particular, C<@DB::args> might have information from the
previous time C<caller> was called.

=item chdir EXPR
X<chdir>
X<cd>
X<directory, change>

=item chdir FILEHANDLE

=item chdir DIRHANDLE

=item chdir

Changes the working directory to EXPR, if possible. If EXPR is omitted,
changes to the directory specified by C<$ENV{HOME}>, if set; if not,
changes to the directory specified by C<$ENV{LOGDIR}>. (Under VMS, the
variable C<$ENV{SYS$LOGIN}> is also checked, and used if it is set.) If
neither is set, C<chdir> does nothing. It returns true upon success,
false otherwise. See the example under C<die>.

On systems that support fchdir, you might pass a file handle or
directory handle as argument.  On systems that don't support fchdir,
passing handles produces a fatal error at run time.

=item chmod LIST
X<chmod> X<permission> X<mode>

Changes the permissions of a list of files.  The first element of the
list must be the numerical mode, which should probably be an octal
number, and which definitely should I<not> be a string of octal digits:
C<0644> is okay, C<'0644'> is not.  Returns the number of files
successfully changed.  See also L</oct>, if all you have is a string.

    $cnt = chmod 0755, 'foo', 'bar';
    chmod 0755, @executables;
    $mode = '0644'; chmod $mode, 'foo';      # !!! sets mode to
                                             # --w----r-T
    $mode = '0644'; chmod oct($mode), 'foo'; # this is better
    $mode = 0644;   chmod $mode, 'foo';      # this is best

On systems that support fchmod, you might pass file handles among the
files.  On systems that don't support fchmod, passing file handles
produces a fatal error at run time.   The file handles must be passed
as globs or references to be recognized.  Barewords are considered
file names.

    open(my $fh, "<", "foo");
    my $perm = (stat $fh)[2] & 07777;
    chmod($perm | 0600, $fh);

You can also import the symbolic C<S_I*> constants from the Fcntl
module:

    use Fcntl ':mode';

    chmod S_IRWXU|S_IRGRP|S_IXGRP|S_IROTH|S_IXOTH, @executables;
    # This is identical to the chmod 0755 of the above example.

=item chomp VARIABLE
X<chomp> X<INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR> X<$/> X<newline> X<eol>

=item chomp( LIST )

=item chomp

This safer version of L</chop> removes any trailing string
that corresponds to the current value of C<$/> (also known as
$INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR in the C<English> module).  It returns the total
number of characters removed from all its arguments.  It's often used to
remove the newline from the end of an input record when you're worried
that the final record may be missing its newline.  When in paragraph
mode (C<$/ = "">), it removes all trailing newlines from the string.
When in slurp mode (C<$/ = undef>) or fixed-length record mode (C<$/> is
a reference to an integer or the like, see L<perlvar>) chomp() won't
remove anything.
If VARIABLE is omitted, it chomps C<$_>.  Example:

    while (<>) {
	chomp;	# avoid \n on last field
	@array = split(/:/);
	# ...
    }

If VARIABLE is a hash, it chomps the hash's values, but not its keys.

You can actually chomp anything that's an lvalue, including an assignment:

    chomp($cwd = `pwd`);
    chomp($answer = <STDIN>);

If you chomp a list, each element is chomped, and the total number of
characters removed is returned.

Note that parentheses are necessary when you're chomping anything
that is not a simple variable.  This is because C<chomp $cwd = `pwd`;>
is interpreted as C<(chomp $cwd) = `pwd`;>, rather than as
C<chomp( $cwd = `pwd` )> which you might expect.  Similarly,
C<chomp $a, $b> is interpreted as C<chomp($a), $b> rather than
as C<chomp($a, $b)>.

=item chop VARIABLE
X<chop>

=item chop( LIST )

=item chop

Chops off the last character of a string and returns the character
chopped.  It is much more efficient than C<s/.$//s> because it neither
scans nor copies the string.  If VARIABLE is omitted, chops C<$_>.
If VARIABLE is a hash, it chops the hash's values, but not its keys.

You can actually chop anything that's an lvalue, including an assignment.

If you chop a list, each element is chopped.  Only the value of the
last C<chop> is returned.

Note that C<chop> returns the last character.  To return all but the last
character, use C<substr($string, 0, -1)>.

See also L</chomp>.

=item chown LIST
X<chown> X<owner> X<user> X<group>

Changes the owner (and group) of a list of files.  The first two
elements of the list must be the I<numeric> uid and gid, in that
order.  A value of -1 in either position is interpreted by most
systems to leave that value unchanged.  Returns the number of files
successfully changed.

    $cnt = chown $uid, $gid, 'foo', 'bar';
    chown $uid, $gid, @filenames;

On systems that support fchown, you might pass file handles among the
files.  On systems that don't support fchown, passing file handles
produces a fatal error at run time.  The file handles must be passed
as globs or references to be recognized.  Barewords are considered
file names.

Here's an example that looks up nonnumeric uids in the passwd file:

    print "User: ";
    chomp($user = <STDIN>);
    print "Files: ";
    chomp($pattern = <STDIN>);

    ($login,$pass,$uid,$gid) = getpwnam($user)
	or die "$user not in passwd file";

    @ary = glob($pattern);	# expand filenames
    chown $uid, $gid, @ary;

On most systems, you are not allowed to change the ownership of the
file unless you're the superuser, although you should be able to change
the group to any of your secondary groups.  On insecure systems, these
restrictions may be relaxed, but this is not a portable assumption.
On POSIX systems, you can detect this condition this way:

    use POSIX qw(sysconf _PC_CHOWN_RESTRICTED);
    $can_chown_giveaway = not sysconf(_PC_CHOWN_RESTRICTED);

=item chr NUMBER
X<chr> X<character> X<ASCII> X<Unicode>

=item chr

Returns the character represented by that NUMBER in the character set.
For example, C<chr(65)> is C<"A"> in either ASCII or Unicode, and
chr(0x263a) is a Unicode smiley face.  

Negative values give the Unicode replacement character (chr(0xfffd)),
except under the L<bytes> pragma, where low eight bits of the value
(truncated to an integer) are used.

If NUMBER is omitted, uses C<$_>.

For the reverse, use L</ord>.

Note that characters from 128 to 255 (inclusive) are by default
internally not encoded as UTF-8 for backward compatibility reasons.

See L<perlunicode> for more about Unicode.

=item chroot FILENAME
X<chroot> X<root>

=item chroot

This function works like the system call by the same name: it makes the
named directory the new root directory for all further pathnames that
begin with a C</> by your process and all its children.  (It doesn't
change your current working directory, which is unaffected.)  For security
reasons, this call is restricted to the superuser.  If FILENAME is
omitted, does a C<chroot> to C<$_>.

=item close FILEHANDLE
X<close>

=item close

Closes the file or pipe associated with the file handle, flushes the IO
buffers, and closes the system file descriptor.  Returns true if those
operations have succeeded and if no error was reported by any PerlIO
layer.  Closes the currently selected filehandle if the argument is
omitted.

You don't have to close FILEHANDLE if you are immediately going to do
another C<open> on it, because C<open> will close it for you.  (See
C<open>.)  However, an explicit C<close> on an input file resets the line
counter (C<$.>), while the implicit close done by C<open> does not.

If the file handle came from a piped open, C<close> will additionally
return false if one of the other system calls involved fails, or if the
program exits with non-zero status.  (If the only problem was that the
program exited non-zero, C<$!> will be set to C<0>.)  Closing a pipe
also waits for the process executing on the pipe to complete, in case you
want to look at the output of the pipe afterwards, and
implicitly puts the exit status value of that command into C<$?> and
C<${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}>.

Prematurely closing the read end of a pipe (i.e. before the process
writing to it at the other end has closed it) will result in a
SIGPIPE being delivered to the writer.  If the other end can't
handle that, be sure to read all the data before closing the pipe.

Example:

    open(OUTPUT, '|sort >foo')  # pipe to sort
        or die "Can't start sort: $!";
    #...			# print stuff to output
    close OUTPUT		# wait for sort to finish
        or warn $! ? "Error closing sort pipe: $!"
                   : "Exit status $? from sort";
    open(INPUT, 'foo')		# get sort's results
        or die "Can't open 'foo' for input: $!";

FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value can be used as an indirect
filehandle, usually the real filehandle name.

=item closedir DIRHANDLE
X<closedir>

Closes a directory opened by C<opendir> and returns the success of that
system call.

=item connect SOCKET,NAME
X<connect>

Attempts to connect to a remote socket, just as the connect system call
does.  Returns true if it succeeded, false otherwise.  NAME should be a
packed address of the appropriate type for the socket.  See the examples in
L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server Communication">.

=item continue BLOCK
X<continue>

=item continue

C<continue> is actually a flow control statement rather than a function.  If
there is a C<continue> BLOCK attached to a BLOCK (typically in a C<while> or
C<foreach>), it is always executed just before the conditional is about to
be evaluated again, just like the third part of a C<for> loop in C.  Thus
it can be used to increment a loop variable, even when the loop has been
continued via the C<next> statement (which is similar to the C C<continue>
statement).

C<last>, C<next>, or C<redo> may appear within a C<continue>
block.  C<last> and C<redo> will behave as if they had been executed within
the main block.  So will C<next>, but since it will execute a C<continue>
block, it may be more entertaining.

    while (EXPR) {
	### redo always comes here
	do_something;
    } continue {
	### next always comes here
	do_something_else;
	# then back the top to re-check EXPR
    }
    ### last always comes here

Omitting the C<continue> section is semantically equivalent to using an
empty one, logically enough.  In that case, C<next> goes directly back
to check the condition at the top of the loop.

If the "switch" feature is enabled, C<continue> is also a
function that will break out of the current C<when> or C<default>
block, and fall through to the next case. See L<feature> and
L<perlsyn/"Switch statements"> for more information.


=item cos EXPR
X<cos> X<cosine> X<acos> X<arccosine>

=item cos

Returns the cosine of EXPR (expressed in radians).  If EXPR is omitted,
takes cosine of C<$_>.

For the inverse cosine operation, you may use the C<Math::Trig::acos()>
function, or use this relation:

    sub acos { atan2( sqrt(1 - $_[0] * $_[0]), $_[0] ) }

=item crypt PLAINTEXT,SALT
X<crypt> X<digest> X<hash> X<salt> X<plaintext> X<password>
X<decrypt> X<cryptography> X<passwd> X<encrypt>

Creates a digest string exactly like the crypt(3) function in the C
library (assuming that you actually have a version there that has not
been extirpated as a potential munition).

crypt() is a one-way hash function.  The PLAINTEXT and SALT is turned
into a short string, called a digest, which is returned.  The same
PLAINTEXT and SALT will always return the same string, but there is no
(known) way to get the original PLAINTEXT from the hash.  Small
changes in the PLAINTEXT or SALT will result in large changes in the
digest.

There is no decrypt function.  This function isn't all that useful for
cryptography (for that, look for F<Crypt> modules on your nearby CPAN
mirror) and the name "crypt" is a bit of a misnomer.  Instead it is
primarily used to check if two pieces of text are the same without
having to transmit or store the text itself.  An example is checking
if a correct password is given.  The digest of the password is stored,
not the password itself.  The user types in a password that is
crypt()'d with the same salt as the stored digest.  If the two digests
match the password is correct.

When verifying an existing digest string you should use the digest as
the salt (like C<crypt($plain, $digest) eq $digest>).  The SALT used
to create the digest is visible as part of the digest.  This ensures
crypt() will hash the new string with the same salt as the digest.
This allows your code to work with the standard L<crypt|/crypt> and
with more exotic implementations.  In other words, do not assume
anything about the returned string itself, or how many bytes in the
digest matter.

Traditionally the result is a string of 13 bytes: two first bytes of
the salt, followed by 11 bytes from the set C<[./0-9A-Za-z]>, and only
the first eight bytes of PLAINTEXT mattered. But alternative
hashing schemes (like MD5), higher level security schemes (like C2),
and implementations on non-UNIX platforms may produce different
strings.

When choosing a new salt create a random two character string whose
characters come from the set C<[./0-9A-Za-z]> (like C<join '', ('.',
'/', 0..9, 'A'..'Z', 'a'..'z')[rand 64, rand 64]>).  This set of
characters is just a recommendation; the characters allowed in
the salt depend solely on your system's crypt library, and Perl can't
restrict what salts C<crypt()> accepts.

Here's an example that makes sure that whoever runs this program knows
their password:

    $pwd = (getpwuid($<))[1];

    system "stty -echo";
    print "Password: ";
    chomp($word = <STDIN>);
    print "\n";
    system "stty echo";

    if (crypt($word, $pwd) ne $pwd) {
	die "Sorry...\n";
    } else {
	print "ok\n";
    }

Of course, typing in your own password to whoever asks you
for it is unwise.

The L<crypt|/crypt> function is unsuitable for hashing large quantities
of data, not least of all because you can't get the information
back.  Look at the L<Digest> module for more robust algorithms.

If using crypt() on a Unicode string (which I<potentially> has
characters with codepoints above 255), Perl tries to make sense
of the situation by trying to downgrade (a copy of the string)
the string back to an eight-bit byte string before calling crypt()
(on that copy).  If that works, good.  If not, crypt() dies with
C<Wide character in crypt>.

=item dbmclose HASH
X<dbmclose>

[This function has been largely superseded by the C<untie> function.]

Breaks the binding between a DBM file and a hash.

=item dbmopen HASH,DBNAME,MASK
X<dbmopen> X<dbm> X<ndbm> X<sdbm> X<gdbm>

[This function has been largely superseded by the C<tie> function.]

This binds a dbm(3), ndbm(3), sdbm(3), gdbm(3), or Berkeley DB file to a
hash.  HASH is the name of the hash.  (Unlike normal C<open>, the first
argument is I<not> a filehandle, even though it looks like one).  DBNAME
is the name of the database (without the F<.dir> or F<.pag> extension if
any).  If the database does not exist, it is created with protection
specified by MASK (as modified by the C<umask>).  If your system supports
only the older DBM functions, you may perform only one C<dbmopen> in your
program.  In older versions of Perl, if your system had neither DBM nor
ndbm, calling C<dbmopen> produced a fatal error; it now falls back to
sdbm(3).

If you don't have write access to the DBM file, you can only read hash
variables, not set them.  If you want to test whether you can write,
either use file tests or try setting a dummy hash entry inside an C<eval>,
which will trap the error.

Note that functions such as C<keys> and C<values> may return huge lists
when used on large DBM files.  You may prefer to use the C<each>
function to iterate over large DBM files.  Example:

    # print out history file offsets
    dbmopen(%HIST,'/usr/lib/news/history',0666);
    while (($key,$val) = each %HIST) {
	print $key, ' = ', unpack('L',$val), "\n";
    }
    dbmclose(%HIST);

See also L<AnyDBM_File> for a more general description of the pros and
cons of the various dbm approaches, as well as L<DB_File> for a particularly
rich implementation.

You can control which DBM library you use by loading that library
before you call dbmopen():

    use DB_File;
    dbmopen(%NS_Hist, "$ENV{HOME}/.netscape/history.db")
	or die "Can't open netscape history file: $!";

=item defined EXPR
X<defined> X<undef> X<undefined>

=item defined

Returns a Boolean value telling whether EXPR has a value other than
the undefined value C<undef>.  If EXPR is not present, C<$_> will be
checked.

Many operations return C<undef> to indicate failure, end of file,
system error, uninitialized variable, and other exceptional
conditions.  This function allows you to distinguish C<undef> from
other values.  (A simple Boolean test will not distinguish among
C<undef>, zero, the empty string, and C<"0">, which are all equally
false.)  Note that since C<undef> is a valid scalar, its presence
doesn't I<necessarily> indicate an exceptional condition: C<pop>
returns C<undef> when its argument is an empty array, I<or> when the
element to return happens to be C<undef>.

You may also use C<defined(&func)> to check whether subroutine C<&func>
has ever been defined.  The return value is unaffected by any forward
declarations of C<&func>.  Note that a subroutine which is not defined
may still be callable: its package may have an C<AUTOLOAD> method that
makes it spring into existence the first time that it is called -- see
L<perlsub>.

Use of C<defined> on aggregates (hashes and arrays) is deprecated.  It
used to report whether memory for that aggregate has ever been
allocated.  This behavior may disappear in future versions of Perl.
You should instead use a simple test for size:

    if (@an_array) { print "has array elements\n" }
    if (%a_hash)   { print "has hash members\n"   }

When used on a hash element, it tells you whether the value is defined,
not whether the key exists in the hash.  Use L</exists> for the latter
purpose.

Examples:

    print if defined $switch{'D'};
    print "$val\n" while defined($val = pop(@ary));
    die "Can't readlink $sym: $!"
	unless defined($value = readlink $sym);
    sub foo { defined &$bar ? &$bar(@_) : die "No bar"; }
    $debugging = 0 unless defined $debugging;

Note:  Many folks tend to overuse C<defined>, and then are surprised to
discover that the number C<0> and C<""> (the zero-length string) are, in fact,
defined values.  For example, if you say

    "ab" =~ /a(.*)b/;

The pattern match succeeds, and C<$1> is defined, despite the fact that it
matched "nothing".  It didn't really fail to match anything.  Rather, it
matched something that happened to be zero characters long.  This is all
very above-board and honest.  When a function returns an undefined value,
it's an admission that it couldn't give you an honest answer.  So you
should use C<defined> only when you're questioning the integrity of what
you're trying to do.  At other times, a simple comparison to C<0> or C<""> is
what you want.

See also L</undef>, L</exists>, L</ref>.

=item delete EXPR
X<delete>

Given an expression that specifies a hash element, array element, hash slice,
or array slice, deletes the specified element(s) from the hash or array.
In the case of an array, if the array elements happen to be at the end,
the size of the array will shrink to the highest element that tests
true for exists() (or 0 if no such element exists).

Returns a list with the same number of elements as the number of elements
for which deletion was attempted.  Each element of that list consists of
either the value of the element deleted, or the undefined value.  In scalar
context, this means that you get the value of the last element deleted (or
the undefined value if that element did not exist).

    %hash = (foo => 11, bar => 22, baz => 33);
    $scalar = delete $hash{foo};             # $scalar is 11
    $scalar = delete @hash{qw(foo bar)};     # $scalar is 22
    @array  = delete @hash{qw(foo bar baz)}; # @array  is (undef,undef,33)

Deleting from C<%ENV> modifies the environment.  Deleting from
a hash tied to a DBM file deletes the entry from the DBM file.  Deleting
from a C<tie>d hash or array may not necessarily return anything.

Deleting an array element effectively returns that position of the array
to its initial, uninitialized state.  Subsequently testing for the same
element with exists() will return false.  Also, deleting array elements
in the middle of an array will not shift the index of the elements
after them down.  Use splice() for that.  See L</exists>.

The following (inefficiently) deletes all the values of %HASH and @ARRAY:

    foreach $key (keys %HASH) {
	delete $HASH{$key};
    }

    foreach $index (0 .. $#ARRAY) {
	delete $ARRAY[$index];
    }

And so do these:

    delete @HASH{keys %HASH};

    delete @ARRAY[0 .. $#ARRAY];

But both of these are slower than just assigning the empty list
or undefining %HASH or @ARRAY:

    %HASH = ();		# completely empty %HASH
    undef %HASH;	# forget %HASH ever existed

    @ARRAY = ();	# completely empty @ARRAY
    undef @ARRAY;	# forget @ARRAY ever existed

Note that the EXPR can be arbitrarily complicated as long as the final
operation is a hash element, array element,  hash slice, or array slice
lookup:

    delete $ref->[$x][$y]{$key};
    delete @{$ref->[$x][$y]}{$key1, $key2, @morekeys};

    delete $ref->[$x][$y][$index];
    delete @{$ref->[$x][$y]}[$index1, $index2, @moreindices];

The C<delete local EXPR> construct can also be used to localize the deletion
of array/hash elements to the current block.
See L<perlsub/"Localized deletion of elements of composite types">.

=item die LIST
X<die> X<throw> X<exception> X<raise> X<$@> X<abort>

Outside an C<eval>, prints the value of LIST to C<STDERR> and
exits with the current value of C<$!> (errno).  If C<$!> is C<0>,
exits with the value of C<<< ($? >> 8) >>> (backtick `command`
status).  If C<<< ($? >> 8) >>> is C<0>, exits with C<255>.  Inside
an C<eval(),> the error message is stuffed into C<$@> and the
C<eval> is terminated with the undefined value.  This makes
C<die> the way to raise an exception.

Equivalent examples:

    die "Can't cd to spool: $!\n" unless chdir '/usr/spool/news';
    chdir '/usr/spool/news' or die "Can't cd to spool: $!\n"

If the last element of LIST does not end in a newline, the current
script line number and input line number (if any) are also printed,
and a newline is supplied.  Note that the "input line number" (also
known as "chunk") is subject to whatever notion of "line" happens to
be currently in effect, and is also available as the special variable
C<$.>.  See L<perlvar/"$/"> and L<perlvar/"$.">.

Hint: sometimes appending C<", stopped"> to your message will cause it
to make better sense when the string C<"at foo line 123"> is appended.
Suppose you are running script "canasta".

    die "/etc/games is no good";
    die "/etc/games is no good, stopped";

produce, respectively

    /etc/games is no good at canasta line 123.
    /etc/games is no good, stopped at canasta line 123.

See also exit(), warn(), and the Carp module.

If the output is empty and C<$@> already contains a value (typically from a
previous eval) that value is reused after appending C<"\t...propagated">.
This is useful for propagating exceptions:

    eval { ... };
    die unless $@ =~ /Expected exception/;

If the output is empty and C<$@> contains an object reference that has a
C<PROPAGATE> method, that method will be called with additional file
and line number parameters.  The return value replaces the value in
C<$@>.  i.e. as if C<< $@ = eval { $@->PROPAGATE(__FILE__, __LINE__) }; >>
were called.

If C<$@> is empty then the string C<"Died"> is used.

die() can also be called with a reference argument.  If this happens to be
trapped within an eval(), $@ contains the reference.  This behavior permits
a more elaborate exception handling implementation using objects that
maintain arbitrary state about the nature of the exception.  Such a scheme
is sometimes preferable to matching particular string values of $@ using
regular expressions.  Because $@ is a global variable, and eval() may be
used within object implementations, care must be taken that analyzing the
error object doesn't replace the reference in the global variable.  The
easiest solution is to make a local copy of the reference before doing
other manipulations.  Here's an example:

    use Scalar::Util 'blessed';

    eval { ... ; die Some::Module::Exception->new( FOO => "bar" ) };
    if (my $ev_err = $@) {
        if (blessed($ev_err) && $ev_err->isa("Some::Module::Exception")) {
            # handle Some::Module::Exception
        }
        else {
            # handle all other possible exceptions
        }
    }

Because perl will stringify uncaught exception messages before displaying
them, you may want to overload stringification operations on such custom
exception objects.  See L<overload> for details about that.

You can arrange for a callback to be run just before the C<die>
does its deed, by setting the C<$SIG{__DIE__}> hook.  The associated
handler will be called with the error text and can change the error
message, if it sees fit, by calling C<die> again.  See
L<perlvar/$SIG{expr}> for details on setting C<%SIG> entries, and
L<"eval BLOCK"> for some examples.  Although this feature was 
to be run only right before your program was to exit, this is not
currently the case--the C<$SIG{__DIE__}> hook is currently called
even inside eval()ed blocks/strings!  If one wants the hook to do
nothing in such situations, put

	die @_ if $^S;

as the first line of the handler (see L<perlvar/$^S>).  Because
this promotes strange action at a distance, this counterintuitive
behavior may be fixed in a future release.

=item do BLOCK
X<do> X<block>

Not really a function.  Returns the value of the last command in the
sequence of commands indicated by BLOCK.  When modified by the C<while> or
C<until> loop modifier, executes the BLOCK once before testing the loop
condition. (On other statements the loop modifiers test the conditional
first.)

C<do BLOCK> does I<not> count as a loop, so the loop control statements
C<next>, C<last>, or C<redo> cannot be used to leave or restart the block.
See L<perlsyn> for alternative strategies.

=item do SUBROUTINE(LIST)
X<do>

This form of subroutine call is deprecated.  See L<perlsub>.

=item do EXPR
X<do>

Uses the value of EXPR as a filename and executes the contents of the
file as a Perl script.

    do 'stat.pl';

is just like

    eval `cat stat.pl`;

except that it's more efficient and concise, keeps track of the current
filename for error messages, searches the @INC directories, and updates
C<%INC> if the file is found.  See L<perlvar/Predefined Names> for these
variables.  It also differs in that code evaluated with C<do FILENAME>
cannot see lexicals in the enclosing scope; C<eval STRING> does.  It's the
same, however, in that it does reparse the file every time you call it,
so you probably don't want to do this inside a loop.

If C<do> cannot read the file, it returns undef and sets C<$!> to the
error.  If C<do> can read the file but cannot compile it, it
returns undef and sets an error message in C<$@>.   If the file is
successfully compiled, C<do> returns the value of the last expression
evaluated.

Note that inclusion of library modules is better done with the
C<use> and C<require> operators, which also do automatic error checking
and raise an exception if there's a problem.

You might like to use C<do> to read in a program configuration
file.  Manual error checking can be done this way:

    # read in config files: system first, then user
    for $file ("/share/prog/defaults.rc",
               "$ENV{HOME}/.someprogrc")
   {
	unless ($return = do $file) {
	    warn "couldn't parse $file: $@" if $@;
	    warn "couldn't do $file: $!"    unless defined $return;
	    warn "couldn't run $file"       unless $return;
	}
    }

=item dump LABEL
X<dump> X<core> X<undump>

=item dump

This function causes an immediate core dump.  See also the B<-u>
command-line switch in L<perlrun>, which does the same thing.
Primarily this is so that you can use the B<undump> program (not
supplied) to turn your core dump into an executable binary after
having initialized all your variables at the beginning of the
program.  When the new binary is executed it will begin by executing
a C<goto LABEL> (with all the restrictions that C<goto> suffers).
Think of it as a goto with an intervening core dump and reincarnation.
If C<LABEL> is omitted, restarts the program from the top.

B<WARNING>: Any files opened at the time of the dump will I<not>
be open any more when the program is reincarnated, with possible
resulting confusion on the part of Perl.

This function is now largely obsolete, mostly because it's very hard to
convert a core file into an executable. That's why you should now invoke
it as C<CORE::dump()>, if you don't want to be warned against a possible
typo.

=item each HASH
X<each> X<hash, iterator>

=item each ARRAY
X<array, iterator>

When called in list context, returns a 2-element list consisting of the
key and value for the next element of a hash, or the index and value for
the next element of an array, so that you can iterate over it.  When called
in scalar context, returns only the key for the next element in the hash
(or the index for an array).

Hash entries are returned in an apparently random order.  The actual random
order is subject to change in future versions of perl, but it is
guaranteed to be in the same order as either the C<keys> or C<values>
function would produce on the same (unmodified) hash.  Since Perl
5.8.2 the ordering can be different even between different runs of Perl
for security reasons (see L<perlsec/"Algorithmic Complexity Attacks">).

When the hash or array is entirely read, a null array is returned in list
context (which when assigned produces a false (C<0>) value), and C<undef> in
scalar context.  The next call to C<each> after that will start iterating
again.  There is a single iterator for each hash or array, shared by all
C<each>, C<keys>, and C<values> function calls in the program; it can be
reset by reading all the elements from the hash or array, or by evaluating
C<keys HASH>, C<values HASH>, C<keys ARRAY>, or C<values ARRAY>.  If you add
or delete elements of a hash while you're
iterating over it, you may get entries skipped or duplicated, so
don't.  Exception: It is always safe to delete the item most recently
returned by C<each()>, which means that the following code will work:

        while (($key, $value) = each %hash) {
          print $key, "\n";
          delete $hash{$key};   # This is safe
        }

The following prints out your environment like the printenv(1) program,
only in a different order:

    while (($key,$value) = each %ENV) {
	print "$key=$value\n";
    }

See also C<keys>, C<values> and C<sort>.

=item eof FILEHANDLE
X<eof>
X<end of file>
X<end-of-file>

=item eof ()

=item eof

Returns 1 if the next read on FILEHANDLE will return end of file, or if
FILEHANDLE is not open.  FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value
gives the real filehandle.  (Note that this function actually
reads a character and then C<ungetc>s it, so isn't very useful in an
interactive context.)  Do not read from a terminal file (or call
C<eof(FILEHANDLE)> on it) after end-of-file is reached.  File types such
as terminals may lose the end-of-file condition if you do.

An C<eof> without an argument uses the last file read.  Using C<eof()>
with empty parentheses is very different.  It refers to the pseudo file
formed from the files listed on the command line and accessed via the
C<< <> >> operator.  Since C<< <> >> isn't explicitly opened,
as a normal filehandle is, an C<eof()> before C<< <> >> has been
used will cause C<@ARGV> to be examined to determine if input is
available.   Similarly, an C<eof()> after C<< <> >> has returned
end-of-file will assume you are processing another C<@ARGV> list,
and if you haven't set C<@ARGV>, will read input from C<STDIN>;
see L<perlop/"I/O Operators">.

In a C<< while (<>) >> loop, C<eof> or C<eof(ARGV)> can be used to
detect the end of each file, C<eof()> will only detect the end of the
last file.  Examples:

    # reset line numbering on each input file
    while (<>) {
	next if /^\s*#/;	# skip comments
	print "$.\t$_";
    } continue {
	close ARGV  if eof;	# Not eof()!
    }

    # insert dashes just before last line of last file
    while (<>) {
	if (eof()) {		# check for end of last file
	    print "--------------\n";
	}
	print;
	last if eof();          # needed if we're reading from a terminal
    }

Practical hint: you almost never need to use C<eof> in Perl, because the
input operators typically return C<undef> when they run out of data, or if
there was an error.

=item eval EXPR
X<eval> X<try> X<catch> X<evaluate> X<parse> X<execute>
X<error, handling> X<exception, handling>

=item eval BLOCK

=item eval

In the first form, the return value of EXPR is parsed and executed as if it
were a little Perl program.  The value of the expression (which is itself
determined within scalar context) is first parsed, and if there weren't any
errors, executed in the lexical context of the current Perl program, so
that any variable settings or subroutine and format definitions remain
afterwards.  Note that the value is parsed every time the C<eval> executes.
If EXPR is omitted, evaluates C<$_>.  This form is typically used to
delay parsing and subsequent execution of the text of EXPR until run time.

In the second form, the code within the BLOCK is parsed only once--at the
same time the code surrounding the C<eval> itself was parsed--and executed
within the context of the current Perl program.  This form is typically
used to trap exceptions more efficiently than the first (see below), while
also providing the benefit of checking the code within BLOCK at compile
time.

The final semicolon, if any, may be omitted from the value of EXPR or within
the BLOCK.

In both forms, the value returned is the value of the last expression
evaluated inside the mini-program; a return statement may be also used, just
as with subroutines.  The expression providing the return value is evaluated
in void, scalar, or list context, depending on the context of the C<eval> 
itself.  See L</wantarray> for more on how the evaluation context can be 
determined.

If there is a syntax error or runtime error, or a C<die> statement is
executed, C<eval> returns an undefined value in scalar context
or an empty list in list context, and C<$@> is set to the
error message.  If there was no error, C<$@> is guaranteed to be a null
string.  Beware that using C<eval> neither silences perl from printing
warnings to STDERR, nor does it stuff the text of warning messages into C<$@>.
To do either of those, you have to use the C<$SIG{__WARN__}> facility, or
turn off warnings inside the BLOCK or EXPR using S<C<no warnings 'all'>>.
See L</warn>, L<perlvar>, L<warnings> and L<perllexwarn>.

Note that, because C<eval> traps otherwise-fatal errors, it is useful for
determining whether a particular feature (such as C<socket> or C<symlink>)
is implemented.  It is also Perl's exception trapping mechanism, where
the die operator is used to raise exceptions.

If you want to trap errors when loading an XS module, some problems with
the binary interface (such as Perl version skew) may be fatal even with
C<eval> unless C<$ENV{PERL_DL_NONLAZY}> is set. See L<perlrun>.

If the code to be executed doesn't vary, you may use the eval-BLOCK
form to trap run-time errors without incurring the penalty of
recompiling each time.  The error, if any, is still returned in C<$@>.
Examples:

    # make divide-by-zero nonfatal
    eval { $answer = $a / $b; }; warn $@ if $@;

    # same thing, but less efficient
    eval '$answer = $a / $b'; warn $@ if $@;

    # a compile-time error
    eval { $answer = };			# WRONG

    # a run-time error
    eval '$answer =';	# sets $@

Using the C<eval{}> form as an exception trap in libraries does have some
issues.  Due to the current arguably broken state of C<__DIE__> hooks, you
may wish not to trigger any C<__DIE__> hooks that user code may have installed.
You can use the C<local $SIG{__DIE__}> construct for this purpose,
as shown in this example:

    # a very private exception trap for divide-by-zero
    eval { local $SIG{'__DIE__'}; $answer = $a / $b; };
    warn $@ if $@;

This is especially significant, given that C<__DIE__> hooks can call
C<die> again, which has the effect of changing their error messages:

    # __DIE__ hooks may modify error messages
    {
       local $SIG{'__DIE__'} =
              sub { (my $x = $_[0]) =~ s/foo/bar/g; die $x };
       eval { die "foo lives here" };
       print $@ if $@;                # prints "bar lives here"
    }

Because this promotes action at a distance, this counterintuitive behavior
may be fixed in a future release.

With an C<eval>, you should be especially careful to remember what's
being looked at when:

    eval $x;		# CASE 1
    eval "$x";		# CASE 2

    eval '$x';		# CASE 3
    eval { $x };	# CASE 4

    eval "\$$x++";	# CASE 5
    $$x++;		# CASE 6

Cases 1 and 2 above behave identically: they run the code contained in
the variable $x.  (Although case 2 has misleading double quotes making
the reader wonder what else might be happening (nothing is).)  Cases 3
and 4 likewise behave in the same way: they run the code C<'$x'>, which
does nothing but return the value of $x.  (Case 4 is preferred for
purely visual reasons, but it also has the advantage of compiling at
compile-time instead of at run-time.)  Case 5 is a place where
normally you I<would> like to use double quotes, except that in this
particular situation, you can just use symbolic references instead, as
in case 6.

The assignment to C<$@> occurs before restoration of localised variables,
which means a temporary is required if you want to mask some but not all
errors:

    # alter $@ on nefarious repugnancy only
    {
       my $e;
       {
          local $@; # protect existing $@
          eval { test_repugnancy() };
          # $@ =~ /nefarious/ and die $@; # DOES NOT WORK
          $@ =~ /nefarious/ and $e = $@;
       }
       die $e if defined $e
    }

C<eval BLOCK> does I<not> count as a loop, so the loop control statements
C<next>, C<last>, or C<redo> cannot be used to leave or restart the block.

Note that as a very special case, an C<eval ''> executed within the C<DB>
package doesn't see the usual surrounding lexical scope, but rather the
scope of the first non-DB piece of code that called it. You don't normally
need to worry about this unless you are writing a Perl debugger.

=item exec LIST
X<exec> X<execute>

=item exec PROGRAM LIST

The C<exec> function executes a system command I<and never returns>--
use C<system> instead of C<exec> if you want it to return.  It fails and
returns false only if the command does not exist I<and> it is executed
directly instead of via your system's command shell (see below).

Since it's a common mistake to use C<exec> instead of C<system>, Perl
warns you if there is a following statement which isn't C<die>, C<warn>,
or C<exit> (if C<-w> is set  -  but you always do that).   If you
I<really> want to follow an C<exec> with some other statement, you
can use one of these styles to avoid the warning:

    exec ('foo')   or print STDERR "couldn't exec foo: $!";
    { exec ('foo') }; print STDERR "couldn't exec foo: $!";

If there is more than one argument in LIST, or if LIST is an array
with more than one value, calls execvp(3) with the arguments in LIST.
If there is only one scalar argument or an array with one element in it,
the argument is checked for shell metacharacters, and if there are any,
the entire argument is passed to the system's command shell for parsing
(this is C</bin/sh -c> on Unix platforms, but varies on other platforms).
If there are no shell metacharacters in the argument, it is split into
words and passed directly to C<execvp>, which is more efficient.
Examples:

    exec '/bin/echo', 'Your arguments are: ', @ARGV;
    exec "sort $outfile | uniq";

If you don't really want to execute the first argument, but want to lie
to the program you are executing about its own name, you can specify
the program you actually want to run as an "indirect object" (without a
comma) in front of the LIST.  (This always forces interpretation of the
LIST as a multivalued list, even if there is only a single scalar in
the list.)  Example:

    $shell = '/bin/csh';
    exec $shell '-sh';		# pretend it's a login shell

or, more directly,

    exec {'/bin/csh'} '-sh';	# pretend it's a login shell

When the arguments get executed via the system shell, results will
be subject to its quirks and capabilities.  See L<perlop/"`STRING`">
for details.

Using an indirect object with C<exec> or C<system> is also more
secure.  This usage (which also works fine with system()) forces
interpretation of the arguments as a multivalued list, even if the
list had just one argument.  That way you're safe from the shell
expanding wildcards or splitting up words with whitespace in them.

    @args = ( "echo surprise" );

    exec @args;               # subject to shell escapes
                                # if @args == 1
    exec { $args[0] } @args;  # safe even with one-arg list

The first version, the one without the indirect object, ran the I<echo>
program, passing it C<"surprise"> an argument.  The second version
didn't--it tried to run a program literally called I<"echo surprise">,
didn't find it, and set C<$?> to a non-zero value indicating failure.

Beginning with v5.6.0, Perl will attempt to flush all files opened for
output before the exec, but this may not be supported on some platforms
(see L<perlport>).  To be safe, you may need to set C<$|> ($AUTOFLUSH
in English) or call the C<autoflush()> method of C<IO::Handle> on any
open handles in order to avoid lost output.

Note that C<exec> will not call your C<END> blocks, nor will it call
any C<DESTROY> methods in your objects.

=item exists EXPR
X<exists> X<autovivification>

Given an expression that specifies a hash element or array element,
returns true if the specified element in the hash or array has ever
been initialized, even if the corresponding value is undefined.

    print "Exists\n" 	if exists $hash{$key};
    print "Defined\n" 	if defined $hash{$key};
    print "True\n"      if $hash{$key};

    print "Exists\n" 	if exists $array[$index];
    print "Defined\n" 	if defined $array[$index];
    print "True\n"      if $array[$index];

A hash or array element can be true only if it's defined, and defined if
it exists, but the reverse doesn't necessarily hold true.

Given an expression that specifies the name of a subroutine,
returns true if the specified subroutine has ever been declared, even
if it is undefined.  Mentioning a subroutine name for exists or defined
does not count as declaring it.  Note that a subroutine which does not
exist may still be callable: its package may have an C<AUTOLOAD>
method that makes it spring into existence the first time that it is
called -- see L<perlsub>.

    print "Exists\n" 	if exists &subroutine;
    print "Defined\n" 	if defined &subroutine;

Note that the EXPR can be arbitrarily complicated as long as the final
operation is a hash or array key lookup or subroutine name:

    if (exists $ref->{A}->{B}->{$key}) 	{ }
    if (exists $hash{A}{B}{$key}) 	{ }

    if (exists $ref->{A}->{B}->[$ix]) 	{ }
    if (exists $hash{A}{B}[$ix]) 	{ }

    if (exists &{$ref->{A}{B}{$key}})   { }

Although the deepest nested array or hash will not spring into existence
just because its existence was tested, any intervening ones will.
Thus C<< $ref->{"A"} >> and C<< $ref->{"A"}->{"B"} >> will spring
into existence due to the existence test for the $key element above.
This happens anywhere the arrow operator is used, including even:

    undef $ref;
    if (exists $ref->{"Some key"})	{ }
    print $ref; 	    # prints HASH(0x80d3d5c)

This surprising autovivification in what does not at first--or even
second--glance appear to be an lvalue context may be fixed in a future
release.

Use of a subroutine call, rather than a subroutine name, as an argument
to exists() is an error.

    exists &sub;	# OK
    exists &sub();	# Error

=item exit EXPR
X<exit> X<terminate> X<abort>

=item exit

Evaluates EXPR and exits immediately with that value.    Example:

    $ans = <STDIN>;
    exit 0 if $ans =~ /^[Xx]/;

See also C<die>.  If EXPR is omitted, exits with C<0> status.  The only
universally recognized values for EXPR are C<0> for success and C<1>
for error; other values are subject to interpretation depending on the
environment in which the Perl program is running.  For example, exiting
69 (EX_UNAVAILABLE) from a I<sendmail> incoming-mail filter will cause
the mailer to return the item undelivered, but that's not true everywhere.

Don't use C<exit> to abort a subroutine if there's any chance that
someone might want to trap whatever error happened.  Use C<die> instead,
which can be trapped by an C<eval>.

The exit() function does not always exit immediately.  It calls any
defined C<END> routines first, but these C<END> routines may not
themselves abort the exit.  Likewise any object destructors that need to
be called are called before the real exit.  If this is a problem, you
can call C<POSIX:_exit($status)> to avoid END and destructor processing.
See L<perlmod> for details.

=item exp EXPR
X<exp> X<exponential> X<antilog> X<antilogarithm> X<e>

=item exp

Returns I<e> (the natural logarithm base) to the power of EXPR.
If EXPR is omitted, gives C<exp($_)>.

=item fcntl FILEHANDLE,FUNCTION,SCALAR
X<fcntl>

Implements the fcntl(2) function.  You'll probably have to say

    use Fcntl;

first to get the correct constant definitions.  Argument processing and
value return works just like C<ioctl> below.
For example:

    use Fcntl;
    fcntl($filehandle, F_GETFL, $packed_return_buffer)
	or die "can't fcntl F_GETFL: $!";

You don't have to check for C<defined> on the return from C<fcntl>.
Like C<ioctl>, it maps a C<0> return from the system call into
C<"0 but true"> in Perl.  This string is true in boolean context and C<0>
in numeric context.  It is also exempt from the normal B<-w> warnings
on improper numeric conversions.

Note that C<fcntl> will produce a fatal error if used on a machine that
doesn't implement fcntl(2).  See the Fcntl module or your fcntl(2)
manpage to learn what functions are available on your system.

Here's an example of setting a filehandle named C<REMOTE> to be
non-blocking at the system level.  You'll have to negotiate C<$|>
on your own, though.

    use Fcntl qw(F_GETFL F_SETFL O_NONBLOCK);

    $flags = fcntl(REMOTE, F_GETFL, 0)
                or die "Can't get flags for the socket: $!\n";

    $flags = fcntl(REMOTE, F_SETFL, $flags | O_NONBLOCK)
                or die "Can't set flags for the socket: $!\n";

=item fileno FILEHANDLE
X<fileno>

Returns the file descriptor for a filehandle, or undefined if the
filehandle is not open.  This is mainly useful for constructing
bitmaps for C<select> and low-level POSIX tty-handling operations.
If FILEHANDLE is an expression, the value is taken as an indirect
filehandle, generally its name.

You can use this to find out whether two handles refer to the
same underlying descriptor:

    if (fileno(THIS) == fileno(THAT)) {
	print "THIS and THAT are dups\n";
    }

(Filehandles connected to memory objects via new features of C<open> may
return undefined even though they are open.)


=item flock FILEHANDLE,OPERATION
X<flock> X<lock> X<locking>

Calls flock(2), or an emulation of it, on FILEHANDLE.  Returns true
for success, false on failure.  Produces a fatal error if used on a
machine that doesn't implement flock(2), fcntl(2) locking, or lockf(3).
C<flock> is Perl's portable file locking interface, although it locks
only entire files, not records.

Two potentially non-obvious but traditional C<flock> semantics are
that it waits indefinitely until the lock is granted, and that its locks
B<merely advisory>.  Such discretionary locks are more flexible, but offer
fewer guarantees.  This means that programs that do not also use C<flock>
may modify files locked with C<flock>.  See L<perlport>, 
your port's specific documentation, or your system-specific local manpages
for details.  It's best to assume traditional behavior if you're writing
portable programs.  (But if you're not, you should as always feel perfectly
free to write for your own system's idiosyncrasies (sometimes called
"features").  Slavish adherence to portability concerns shouldn't get
in the way of your getting your job done.)

OPERATION is one of LOCK_SH, LOCK_EX, or LOCK_UN, possibly combined with
LOCK_NB.  These constants are traditionally valued 1, 2, 8 and 4, but
you can use the symbolic names if you import them from the Fcntl module,
either individually, or as a group using the ':flock' tag.  LOCK_SH
requests a shared lock, LOCK_EX requests an exclusive lock, and LOCK_UN
releases a previously requested lock.  If LOCK_NB is bitwise-or'ed with
LOCK_SH or LOCK_EX then C<flock> will return immediately rather than blocking
waiting for the lock (check the return status to see if you got it).

To avoid the possibility of miscoordination, Perl now flushes FILEHANDLE
before locking or unlocking it.

Note that the emulation built with lockf(3) doesn't provide shared
locks, and it requires that FILEHANDLE be open with write intent.  These
are the semantics that lockf(3) implements.  Most if not all systems
implement lockf(3) in terms of fcntl(2) locking, though, so the
differing semantics shouldn't bite too many people.

Note that the fcntl(2) emulation of flock(3) requires that FILEHANDLE
be open with read intent to use LOCK_SH and requires that it be open
with write intent to use LOCK_EX.

Note also that some versions of C<flock> cannot lock things over the
network; you would need to use the more system-specific C<fcntl> for
that.  If you like you can force Perl to ignore your system's flock(2)
function, and so provide its own fcntl(2)-based emulation, by passing
the switch C<-Ud_flock> to the F<Configure> program when you configure
perl.

Here's a mailbox appender for BSD systems.

    use Fcntl qw(:flock SEEK_END); # import LOCK_* and SEEK_END constants

    sub lock {
	my ($fh) = @_;
	flock($fh, LOCK_EX) or die "Cannot lock mailbox - $!\n";

	# and, in case someone appended while we were waiting...
	seek($fh, 0, SEEK_END) or die "Cannot seek - $!\n";
    }

    sub unlock {
	my ($fh) = @_;
	flock($fh, LOCK_UN) or die "Cannot unlock mailbox - $!\n";
    }

    open(my $mbox, ">>", "/usr/spool/mail/$ENV{'USER'}")
	    or die "Can't open mailbox: $!";

    lock($mbox);
    print $mbox $msg,"\n\n";
    unlock($mbox);

On systems that support a real flock(), locks are inherited across fork()
calls, whereas those that must resort to the more capricious fcntl()
function lose the locks, making it harder to write servers.

See also L<DB_File> for other flock() examples.

=item fork
X<fork> X<child> X<parent>

Does a fork(2) system call to create a new process running the
same program at the same point.  It returns the child pid to the
parent process, C<0> to the child process, or C<undef> if the fork is
unsuccessful.  File descriptors (and sometimes locks on those descriptors)
are shared, while everything else is copied.  On most systems supporting
fork(), great care has gone into making it extremely efficient (for
example, using copy-on-write technology on data pages), making it the
dominant paradigm for multitasking over the last few decades.

Beginning with v5.6.0, Perl will attempt to flush all files opened for
output before forking the child process, but this may not be supported
on some platforms (see L<perlport>).  To be safe, you may need to set
C<$|> ($AUTOFLUSH in English) or call the C<autoflush()> method of
C<IO::Handle> on any open handles in order to avoid duplicate output.

If you C<fork> without ever waiting on your children, you will
accumulate zombies.  On some systems, you can avoid this by setting
C<$SIG{CHLD}> to C<"IGNORE">.  See also L<perlipc> for more examples of
forking and reaping moribund children.

Note that if your forked child inherits system file descriptors like
STDIN and STDOUT that are actually connected by a pipe or socket, even
if you exit, then the remote server (such as, say, a CGI script or a
backgrounded job launched from a remote shell) won't think you're done.
You should reopen those to F</dev/null> if it's any issue.

=item format
X<format>

Declare a picture format for use by the C<write> function.  For
example:

    format Something =
	Test: @<<<<<<<< @||||| @>>>>>
	      $str,     $%,    '$' . int($num)
    .

    $str = "widget";
    $num = $cost/$quantity;
    $~ = 'Something';
    write;

See L<perlform> for many details and examples.

=item formline PICTURE,LIST
X<formline>

This is an internal function used by C<format>s, though you may call it,
too.  It formats (see L<perlform>) a list of values according to the
contents of PICTURE, placing the output into the format output
accumulator, C<$^A> (or C<$ACCUMULATOR> in English).
Eventually, when a C<write> is done, the contents of
C<$^A> are written to some filehandle.  You could also read C<$^A>
and then set C<$^A> back to C<"">.  Note that a format typically
does one C<formline> per line of form, but the C<formline> function itself
doesn't care how many newlines are embedded in the PICTURE.  This means
that the C<~> and C<~~> tokens will treat the entire PICTURE as a single line.
You may therefore need to use multiple formlines to implement a single
record format, just like the format compiler.

Be careful if you put double quotes around the picture, because an C<@>
character may be taken to mean the beginning of an array name.
C<formline> always returns true.  See L<perlform> for other examples.

=item getc FILEHANDLE
X<getc> X<getchar> X<character> X<file, read>

=item getc

Returns the next character from the input file attached to FILEHANDLE,
or the undefined value at end of file, or if there was an error (in
the latter case C<$!> is set).  If FILEHANDLE is omitted, reads from
STDIN.  This is not particularly efficient.  However, it cannot be
used by itself to fetch single characters without waiting for the user
to hit enter.  For that, try something more like:

    if ($BSD_STYLE) {
	system "stty cbreak </dev/tty >/dev/tty 2>&1";
    }
    else {
	system "stty", '-icanon', 'eol', "\001";
    }

    $key = getc(STDIN);

    if ($BSD_STYLE) {
	system "stty -cbreak </dev/tty >/dev/tty 2>&1";
    }
    else {
	system "stty", 'icanon', 'eol', '^@'; # ASCII null
    }
    print "\n";

Determination of whether $BSD_STYLE should be set
is left as an exercise to the reader.

The C<POSIX::getattr> function can do this more portably on
systems purporting POSIX compliance.  See also the C<Term::ReadKey>
module from your nearest CPAN site; details on CPAN can be found on
L<perlmodlib/CPAN>.

=item getlogin
X<getlogin> X<login>

This implements the C library function of the same name, which on most
systems returns the current login from F</etc/utmp>, if any.  If null,
use C<getpwuid>.

    $login = getlogin || getpwuid($<) || "Kilroy";

Do not consider C<getlogin> for authentication: it is not as
secure as C<getpwuid>.

=item getpeername SOCKET
X<getpeername> X<peer>

Returns the packed sockaddr address of other end of the SOCKET connection.

    use Socket;
    $hersockaddr    = getpeername(SOCK);
    ($port, $iaddr) = sockaddr_in($hersockaddr);
    $herhostname    = gethostbyaddr($iaddr, AF_INET);
    $herstraddr     = inet_ntoa($iaddr);

=item getpgrp PID
X<getpgrp> X<group>

Returns the current process group for the specified PID.  Use
a PID of C<0> to get the current process group for the
current process.  Will raise an exception if used on a machine that
doesn't implement getpgrp(2).  If PID is omitted, returns process
group of current process.  Note that the POSIX version of C<getpgrp>
does not accept a PID argument, so only C<PID==0> is truly portable.

=item getppid
X<getppid> X<parent> X<pid>

Returns the process id of the parent process.

Note for Linux users: on Linux, the C functions C<getpid()> and
C<getppid()> return different values from different threads. In order to
be portable, this behavior is not reflected by the perl-level function
C<getppid()>, that returns a consistent value across threads. If you want
to call the underlying C<getppid()>, you may use the CPAN module
C<Linux::Pid>.

=item getpriority WHICH,WHO
X<getpriority> X<priority> X<nice>

Returns the current priority for a process, a process group, or a user.
(See C<getpriority(2)>.)  Will raise a fatal exception if used on a
machine that doesn't implement getpriority(2).

=item getpwnam NAME
X<getpwnam> X<getgrnam> X<gethostbyname> X<getnetbyname> X<getprotobyname>
X<getpwuid> X<getgrgid> X<getservbyname> X<gethostbyaddr> X<getnetbyaddr>
X<getprotobynumber> X<getservbyport> X<getpwent> X<getgrent> X<gethostent>
X<getnetent> X<getprotoent> X<getservent> X<setpwent> X<setgrent> X<sethostent>
X<setnetent> X<setprotoent> X<setservent> X<endpwent> X<endgrent> X<endhostent>
X<endnetent> X<endprotoent> X<endservent> 

=item getgrnam NAME

=item gethostbyname NAME

=item getnetbyname NAME

=item getprotobyname NAME

=item getpwuid UID

=item getgrgid GID

=item getservbyname NAME,PROTO

=item gethostbyaddr ADDR,ADDRTYPE

=item getnetbyaddr ADDR,ADDRTYPE

=item getprotobynumber NUMBER

=item getservbyport PORT,PROTO

=item getpwent

=item getgrent

=item gethostent

=item getnetent

=item getprotoent

=item getservent

=item setpwent

=item setgrent

=item sethostent STAYOPEN

=item setnetent STAYOPEN

=item setprotoent STAYOPEN

=item setservent STAYOPEN

=item endpwent

=item endgrent

=item endhostent

=item endnetent

=item endprotoent

=item endservent

These routines perform the same functions as their counterparts in the
system library.  In list context, the return values from the
various get routines are as follows:

    ($name,$passwd,$uid,$gid,
       $quota,$comment,$gcos,$dir,$shell,$expire) = getpw*
    ($name,$passwd,$gid,$members) = getgr*
    ($name,$aliases,$addrtype,$length,@addrs) = gethost*
    ($name,$aliases,$addrtype,$net) = getnet*
    ($name,$aliases,$proto) = getproto*
    ($name,$aliases,$port,$proto) = getserv*

(If the entry doesn't exist you get a null list.)

The exact meaning of the $gcos field varies but it usually contains
the real name of the user (as opposed to the login name) and other
information pertaining to the user.  Beware, however, that in many
system users are able to change this information and therefore it
cannot be trusted and therefore the $gcos is tainted (see
L<perlsec>).  The $passwd and $shell, user's encrypted password and
login shell, are also tainted, because of the same reason.

In scalar context, you get the name, unless the function was a
lookup by name, in which case you get the other thing, whatever it is.
(If the entry doesn't exist you get the undefined value.)  For example:

    $uid   = getpwnam($name);
    $name  = getpwuid($num);
    $name  = getpwent();
    $gid   = getgrnam($name);
    $name  = getgrgid($num);
    $name  = getgrent();
    #etc.

In I<getpw*()> the fields $quota, $comment, and $expire are special
cases in the sense that in many systems they are unsupported.  If the
$quota is unsupported, it is an empty scalar.  If it is supported, it
usually encodes the disk quota.  If the $comment field is unsupported,
it is an empty scalar.  If it is supported it usually encodes some
administrative comment about the user.  In some systems the $quota
field may be $change or $age, fields that have to do with password
aging.  In some systems the $comment field may be $class.  The $expire
field, if present, encodes the expiration period of the account or the
password.  For the availability and the exact meaning of these fields
in your system, please consult your getpwnam(3) documentation and your
F<pwd.h> file.  You can also find out from within Perl what your
$quota and $comment fields mean and whether you have the $expire field
by using the C<Config> module and the values C<d_pwquota>, C<d_pwage>,
C<d_pwchange>, C<d_pwcomment>, and C<d_pwexpire>.  Shadow password
files are only supported if your vendor has implemented them in the
intuitive fashion that calling the regular C library routines gets the
shadow versions if you're running under privilege or if there exists
the shadow(3) functions as found in System V (this includes Solaris
and Linux.)  Those systems that implement a proprietary shadow password
facility are unlikely to be supported.

The $members value returned by I<getgr*()> is a space separated list of
the login names of the members of the group.

For the I<gethost*()> functions, if the C<h_errno> variable is supported in
C, it will be returned to you via C<$?> if the function call fails.  The
C<@addrs> value returned by a successful call is a list of the raw
addresses returned by the corresponding system library call.  In the
Internet domain, each address is four bytes long and you can unpack it
by saying something like:

    ($a,$b,$c,$d) = unpack('W4',$addr[0]);

The Socket library makes this slightly easier:

    use Socket;
    $iaddr = inet_aton("127.1"); # or whatever address
    $name  = gethostbyaddr($iaddr, AF_INET);

    # or going the other way
    $straddr = inet_ntoa($iaddr);

In the opposite way, to resolve a hostname to the IP address
you can write this:

    use Socket;
    $packed_ip = gethostbyname("www.perl.org");
    if (defined $packed_ip) {
        $ip_address = inet_ntoa($packed_ip);
    }

Make sure <gethostbyname()> is called in SCALAR context and that
its return value is checked for definedness.

If you get tired of remembering which element of the return list
contains which return value, by-name interfaces are provided
in standard modules: C<File::stat>, C<Net::hostent>, C<Net::netent>,
C<Net::protoent>, C<Net::servent>, C<Time::gmtime>, C<Time::localtime>,
and C<User::grent>.  These override the normal built-ins, supplying
versions that return objects with the appropriate names
for each field.  For example:

   use File::stat;
   use User::pwent;
   $is_his = (stat($filename)->uid == pwent($whoever)->uid);

Even though it looks like they're the same method calls (uid),
they aren't, because a C<File::stat> object is different from
a C<User::pwent> object.

=item getsockname SOCKET
X<getsockname>

Returns the packed sockaddr address of this end of the SOCKET connection,
in case you don't know the address because you have several different
IPs that the connection might have come in on.

    use Socket;
    $mysockaddr = getsockname(SOCK);
    ($port, $myaddr) = sockaddr_in($mysockaddr);
    printf "Connect to %s [%s]\n",
       scalar gethostbyaddr($myaddr, AF_INET),
       inet_ntoa($myaddr);

=item getsockopt SOCKET,LEVEL,OPTNAME
X<getsockopt>

Queries the option named OPTNAME associated with SOCKET at a given LEVEL.
Options may exist at multiple protocol levels depending on the socket
type, but at least the uppermost socket level SOL_SOCKET (defined in the
C<Socket> module) will exist. To query options at another level the
protocol number of the appropriate protocol controlling the option
should be supplied. For example, to indicate that an option is to be
interpreted by the TCP protocol, LEVEL should be set to the protocol
number of TCP, which you can get using getprotobyname.

The call returns a packed string representing the requested socket option,
or C<undef> if there is an error (the error reason will be in $!). What
exactly is in the packed string depends in the LEVEL and OPTNAME, consult
your system documentation for details. A very common case however is that
the option is an integer, in which case the result will be a packed
integer which you can decode using unpack with the C<i> (or C<I>) format.

An example testing if Nagle's algorithm is turned on on a socket:

    use Socket qw(:all);

    defined(my $tcp = getprotobyname("tcp"))
	or die "Could not determine the protocol number for tcp";
    # my $tcp = IPPROTO_TCP; # Alternative
    my $packed = getsockopt($socket, $tcp, TCP_NODELAY)
	or die "Could not query TCP_NODELAY socket option: $!";
    my $nodelay = unpack("I", $packed);
    print "Nagle's algorithm is turned ", $nodelay ? "off\n" : "on\n";


=item glob EXPR
X<glob> X<wildcard> X<filename, expansion> X<expand>

=item glob

In list context, returns a (possibly empty) list of filename expansions on
the value of EXPR such as the standard Unix shell F</bin/csh> would do. In
scalar context, glob iterates through such filename expansions, returning
undef when the list is exhausted. This is the internal function
implementing the C<< <*.c> >> operator, but you can use it directly. If
EXPR is omitted, C<$_> is used.  The C<< <*.c> >> operator is discussed in
more detail in L<perlop/"I/O Operators">.

Note that C<glob> will split its arguments on whitespace, treating
each segment as separate pattern.  As such, C<glob('*.c *.h')> would
match all files with a F<.c> or F<.h> extension.  The expression
C<glob('.* *')> would match all files in the current working directory.

Beginning with v5.6.0, this operator is implemented using the standard
C<File::Glob> extension.  See L<File::Glob> for details, including
C<bsd_glob> which does not treat whitespace as a pattern separator.

=item gmtime EXPR
X<gmtime> X<UTC> X<Greenwich>

=item gmtime

Works just like L<localtime> but the returned values are
localized for the standard Greenwich time zone.

Note: when called in list context, $isdst, the last value
returned by gmtime is always C<0>.  There is no
Daylight Saving Time in GMT.

See L<perlport/gmtime> for portability concerns.

=item goto LABEL
X<goto> X<jump> X<jmp>

=item goto EXPR

=item goto &NAME

The C<goto-LABEL> form finds the statement labeled with LABEL and resumes
execution there.  It may not be used to go into any construct that
requires initialization, such as a subroutine or a C<foreach> loop.  It
also can't be used to go into a construct that is optimized away,
or to get out of a block or subroutine given to C<sort>.
It can be used to go almost anywhere else within the dynamic scope,
including out of subroutines, but it's usually better to use some other
construct such as C<last> or C<die>.  The author of Perl has never felt the
need to use this form of C<goto> (in Perl, that is--C is another matter).
(The difference being that C does not offer named loops combined with
loop control.  Perl does, and this replaces most structured uses of C<goto>
in other languages.)

The C<goto-EXPR> form expects a label name, whose scope will be resolved
dynamically.  This allows for computed C<goto>s per FORTRAN, but isn't
necessarily recommended if you're optimizing for maintainability:

    goto ("FOO", "BAR", "GLARCH")[$i];

The C<goto-&NAME> form is quite different from the other forms of
C<goto>.  In fact, it isn't a goto in the normal sense at all, and
doesn't have the stigma associated with other gotos.  Instead, it
exits the current subroutine (losing any changes set by local()) and
immediately calls in its place the named subroutine using the current
value of @_.  This is used by C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines that wish to
load another subroutine and then pretend that the other subroutine had
been called in the first place (except that any modifications to C<@_>
in the current subroutine are propagated to the other subroutine.)
After the C<goto>, not even C<caller> will be able to tell that this
routine was called first.

NAME needn't be the name of a subroutine; it can be a scalar variable
containing a code reference, or a block that evaluates to a code
reference.

=item grep BLOCK LIST
X<grep>

=item grep EXPR,LIST

This is similar in spirit to, but not the same as, grep(1) and its
relatives.  In particular, it is not limited to using regular expressions.

Evaluates the BLOCK or EXPR for each element of LIST (locally setting
C<$_> to each element) and returns the list value consisting of those
elements for which the expression evaluated to true.  In scalar
context, returns the number of times the expression was true.

    @foo = grep(!/^#/, @bar);    # weed out comments

or equivalently,

    @foo = grep {!/^#/} @bar;    # weed out comments

Note that C<$_> is an alias to the list value, so it can be used to
modify the elements of the LIST.  While this is useful and supported,
it can cause bizarre results if the elements of LIST are not variables.
Similarly, grep returns aliases into the original list, much as a for
loop's index variable aliases the list elements.  That is, modifying an
element of a list returned by grep (for example, in a C<foreach>, C<map>
or another C<grep>) actually modifies the element in the original list.
This is usually something to be avoided when writing clear code.

If C<$_> is lexical in the scope where the C<grep> appears (because it has
been declared with C<my $_>) then, in addition to being locally aliased to
the list elements, C<$_> keeps being lexical inside the block; i.e. it
can't be seen from the outside, avoiding any potential side-effects.

See also L</map> for a list composed of the results of the BLOCK or EXPR.

=item hex EXPR
X<hex> X<hexadecimal>

=item hex

Interprets EXPR as a hex string and returns the corresponding value.
(To convert strings that might start with either C<0>, C<0x>, or C<0b>, see
L</oct>.)  If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.

    print hex '0xAf'; # prints '175'
    print hex 'aF';   # same

Hex strings may only represent integers.  Strings that would cause
integer overflow trigger a warning.  Leading whitespace is not stripped,
unlike oct(). To present something as hex, look into L</printf>,
L</sprintf>, or L</unpack>.

=item import LIST
X<import>

There is no builtin C<import> function.  It is just an ordinary
method (subroutine) defined (or inherited) by modules that wish to export
names to another module.  The C<use> function calls the C<import> method
for the package used.  See also L</use>, L<perlmod>, and L<Exporter>.

=item index STR,SUBSTR,POSITION
X<index> X<indexOf> X<InStr>

=item index STR,SUBSTR

The index function searches for one string within another, but without
the wildcard-like behavior of a full regular-expression pattern match.
It returns the position of the first occurrence of SUBSTR in STR at
or after POSITION.  If POSITION is omitted, starts searching from the
beginning of the string.  POSITION before the beginning of the string
or after its end is treated as if it were the beginning or the end,
respectively.  POSITION and the return value are based at C<0> (or whatever
you've set the C<$[> variable to--but don't do that).  If the substring
is not found, C<index> returns one less than the base, ordinarily C<-1>.

=item int EXPR
X<int> X<integer> X<truncate> X<trunc> X<floor>

=item int

Returns the integer portion of EXPR.  If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
You should not use this function for rounding: one because it truncates
towards C<0>, and two because machine representations of floating point
numbers can sometimes produce counterintuitive results.  For example,
C<int(-6.725/0.025)> produces -268 rather than the correct -269; that's
because it's really more like -268.99999999999994315658 instead.  Usually,
the C<sprintf>, C<printf>, or the C<POSIX::floor> and C<POSIX::ceil>
functions will serve you better than will int().

=item ioctl FILEHANDLE,FUNCTION,SCALAR
X<ioctl>

Implements the ioctl(2) function.  You'll probably first have to say

    require "sys/ioctl.ph";	# probably in $Config{archlib}/sys/ioctl.ph

to get the correct function definitions.  If F<sys/ioctl.ph> doesn't
exist or doesn't have the correct definitions you'll have to roll your
own, based on your C header files such as F<< <sys/ioctl.h> >>.
(There is a Perl script called B<h2ph> that comes with the Perl kit that
may help you in this, but it's nontrivial.)  SCALAR will be read and/or
written depending on the FUNCTION--a pointer to the string value of SCALAR
will be passed as the third argument of the actual C<ioctl> call.  (If SCALAR
has no string value but does have a numeric value, that value will be
passed rather than a pointer to the string value.  To guarantee this to be
true, add a C<0> to the scalar before using it.)  The C<pack> and C<unpack>
functions may be needed to manipulate the values of structures used by
C<ioctl>.

The return value of C<ioctl> (and C<fcntl>) is as follows:

	if OS returns:		then Perl returns:
	    -1	  		  undefined value
	     0	 		string "0 but true"
	anything else		    that number

Thus Perl returns true on success and false on failure, yet you can
still easily determine the actual value returned by the operating
system:

    $retval = ioctl(...) || -1;
    printf "System returned %d\n", $retval;

The special string C<"0 but true"> is exempt from B<-w> complaints
about improper numeric conversions.

=item join EXPR,LIST
X<join>

Joins the separate strings of LIST into a single string with fields
separated by the value of EXPR, and returns that new string.  Example:

    $rec = join(':', $login,$passwd,$uid,$gid,$gcos,$home,$shell);

Beware that unlike C<split>, C<join> doesn't take a pattern as its
first argument.  Compare L</split>.

=item keys HASH
X<keys> X<key>

=item keys ARRAY

Returns a list consisting of all the keys of the named hash, or the indices
of an array. (In scalar context, returns the number of keys or indices.)

The keys of a hash are returned in an apparently random order.  The actual
random order is subject to change in future versions of perl, but it
is guaranteed to be the same order as either the C<values> or C<each>
function produces (given that the hash has not been modified).  Since
Perl 5.8.1 the ordering is different even between different runs of
Perl for security reasons (see L<perlsec/"Algorithmic Complexity
Attacks">).

As a side effect, calling keys() resets the HASH or ARRAY's internal iterator
(see L</each>).  In particular, calling keys() in void context resets
the iterator with no other overhead.

Here is yet another way to print your environment:

    @keys = keys %ENV;
    @values = values %ENV;
    while (@keys) {
	print pop(@keys), '=', pop(@values), "\n";
    }

or how about sorted by key:

    foreach $key (sort(keys %ENV)) {
	print $key, '=', $ENV{$key}, "\n";
    }

The returned values are copies of the original keys in the hash, so
modifying them will not affect the original hash.  Compare L</values>.

To sort a hash by value, you'll need to use a C<sort> function.
Here's a descending numeric sort of a hash by its values:

    foreach $key (sort { $hash{$b} <=> $hash{$a} } keys %hash) {
	printf "%4d %s\n", $hash{$key}, $key;
    }

As an lvalue C<keys> allows you to increase the number of hash buckets
allocated for the given hash.  This can gain you a measure of efficiency if
you know the hash is going to get big.  (This is similar to pre-extending
an array by assigning a larger number to $#array.)  If you say

    keys %hash = 200;

then C<%hash> will have at least 200 buckets allocated for it--256 of them,
in fact, since it rounds up to the next power of two.  These
buckets will be retained even if you do C<%hash = ()>, use C<undef
%hash> if you want to free the storage while C<%hash> is still in scope.
You can't shrink the number of buckets allocated for the hash using
C<keys> in this way (but you needn't worry about doing this by accident,
as trying has no effect). C<keys @array> in an lvalue context is a syntax
error.

See also C<each>, C<values> and C<sort>.

=item kill SIGNAL, LIST
X<kill> X<signal>

Sends a signal to a list of processes.  Returns the number of
processes successfully signaled (which is not necessarily the
same as the number actually killed).

    $cnt = kill 1, $child1, $child2;
    kill 9, @goners;

If SIGNAL is zero, no signal is sent to the process, but the kill(2)
system call will check whether it's possible to send a signal to it (that
means, to be brief, that the process is owned by the same user, or we are
the super-user).  This is a useful way to check that a child process is
alive (even if only as a zombie) and hasn't changed its UID.  See
L<perlport> for notes on the portability of this construct.

Unlike in the shell, if SIGNAL is negative, it kills process groups instead
of processes. That means you usually want to use positive not negative signals.
You may also use a signal name in quotes.

The behavior of kill when a I<PROCESS> number is zero or negative depends on
the operating system.  For example, on POSIX-conforming systems, zero will
signal the current process group and -1 will signal all processes.

See L<perlipc/"Signals"> for more details.

=item last LABEL
X<last> X<break>

=item last

The C<last> command is like the C<break> statement in C (as used in
loops); it immediately exits the loop in question.  If the LABEL is
omitted, the command refers to the innermost enclosing loop.  The
C<continue> block, if any, is not executed:

    LINE: while (<STDIN>) {
	last LINE if /^$/;	# exit when done with header
	#...
    }

C<last> cannot be used to exit a block which returns a value such as
C<eval {}>, C<sub {}> or C<do {}>, and should not be used to exit
a grep() or map() operation.

Note that a block by itself is semantically identical to a loop
that executes once.  Thus C<last> can be used to effect an early
exit out of such a block.

See also L</continue> for an illustration of how C<last>, C<next>, and
C<redo> work.

=item lc EXPR
X<lc> X<lowercase>

=item lc

Returns a lowercased version of EXPR.  This is the internal function
implementing the C<\L> escape in double-quoted strings.  Respects
current LC_CTYPE locale if C<use locale> in force.  See L<perllocale>
and L<perlunicode> for more details about locale and Unicode support.

If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.

=item lcfirst EXPR
X<lcfirst> X<lowercase>

=item lcfirst

Returns the value of EXPR with the first character lowercased.  This
is the internal function implementing the C<\l> escape in
double-quoted strings.  Respects current LC_CTYPE locale if C<use
locale> in force.  See L<perllocale> and L<perlunicode> for more
details about locale and Unicode support.

If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.

=item length EXPR
X<length> X<size>

=item length

Returns the length in I<characters> of the value of EXPR.  If EXPR is
omitted, returns length of C<$_>.  If EXPR is undefined, returns C<undef>.
Note that this cannot be used on an entire array or hash to find out how
many elements these have. For that, use C<scalar @array> and C<scalar keys
%hash> respectively.

Note the I<characters>: if the EXPR is in Unicode, you will get the
number of characters, not the number of bytes.  To get the length
of the internal string in bytes, use C<bytes::length(EXPR)>, see
L<bytes>.  Note that the internal encoding is variable, and the number
of bytes usually meaningless.  To get the number of bytes that the
string would have when encoded as UTF-8, use
C<length(Encoding::encode_utf8(EXPR))>.

=item link OLDFILE,NEWFILE
X<link>

Creates a new filename linked to the old filename.  Returns true for
success, false otherwise.

=item listen SOCKET,QUEUESIZE
X<listen>

Does the same thing that the listen system call does.  Returns true if
it succeeded, false otherwise.  See the example in
L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server Communication">.

=item local EXPR
X<local>

You really probably want to be using C<my> instead, because C<local> isn't
what most people think of as "local".  See
L<perlsub/"Private Variables via my()"> for details.

A local modifies the listed variables to be local to the enclosing
block, file, or eval.  If more than one value is listed, the list must
be placed in parentheses.  See L<perlsub/"Temporary Values via local()">
for details, including issues with tied arrays and hashes.

The C<delete local EXPR> construct can also be used to localize the deletion
of array/hash elements to the current block.
See L<perlsub/"Localized deletion of elements of composite types">.

=item localtime EXPR
X<localtime> X<ctime>

=item localtime

Converts a time as returned by the time function to a 9-element list
with the time analyzed for the local time zone.  Typically used as
follows:

    #  0    1    2     3     4    5     6     7     8
    ($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) =
                                                localtime(time);

All list elements are numeric, and come straight out of the C `struct
tm'.  C<$sec>, C<$min>, and C<$hour> are the seconds, minutes, and hours
of the specified time.

C<$mday> is the day of the month, and C<$mon> is the month itself, in
the range C<0..11> with 0 indicating January and 11 indicating December.
This makes it easy to get a month name from a list:

    my @abbr = qw( Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec );
    print "$abbr[$mon] $mday";
    # $mon=9, $mday=18 gives "Oct 18"

C<$year> is the number of years since 1900, not just the last two digits
of the year.  That is, C<$year> is C<123> in year 2023.  The proper way
to get a complete 4-digit year is simply:

    $year += 1900;

Otherwise you create non-Y2K-compliant programs--and you wouldn't want
to do that, would you?

To get the last two digits of the year (e.g., '01' in 2001) do:

    $year = sprintf("%02d", $year % 100);

C<$wday> is the day of the week, with 0 indicating Sunday and 3 indicating
Wednesday.  C<$yday> is the day of the year, in the range C<0..364>
(or C<0..365> in leap years.)

C<$isdst> is true if the specified time occurs during Daylight Saving
Time, false otherwise.

If EXPR is omitted, C<localtime()> uses the current time (as returned
by time(3)).

In scalar context, C<localtime()> returns the ctime(3) value:

    $now_string = localtime;  # e.g., "Thu Oct 13 04:54:34 1994"

This scalar value is B<not> locale dependent but is a Perl builtin. For GMT
instead of local time use the L</gmtime> builtin. See also the
C<Time::Local> module (to convert the second, minutes, hours, ... back to
the integer value returned by time()), and the L<POSIX> module's strftime(3)
and mktime(3) functions.

To get somewhat similar but locale dependent date strings, set up your
locale environment variables appropriately (please see L<perllocale>) and
try for example:

    use POSIX qw(strftime);
    $now_string = strftime "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y", localtime;
    # or for GMT formatted appropriately for your locale:
    $now_string = strftime "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y", gmtime;

Note that the C<%a> and C<%b>, the short forms of the day of the week
and the month of the year, may not necessarily be three characters wide.

See L<perlport/localtime> for portability concerns.

The L<Time::gmtime> and L<Time::localtime> modules provides a convenient,
by-name access mechanism to the gmtime() and localtime() functions,
respectively.

For a comprehensive date and time representation look at the
L<DateTime> module on CPAN.

=item lock THING
X<lock>

This function places an advisory lock on a shared variable, or referenced
object contained in I<THING> until the lock goes out of scope.

lock() is a "weak keyword" : this means that if you've defined a function
by this name (before any calls to it), that function will be called
instead. (However, if you've said C<use threads>, lock() is always a
keyword.) See L<threads>.

=item log EXPR
X<log> X<logarithm> X<e> X<ln> X<base>

=item log

Returns the natural logarithm (base I<e>) of EXPR.  If EXPR is omitted,
returns log of C<$_>.  To get the log of another base, use basic algebra:
The base-N log of a number is equal to the natural log of that number
divided by the natural log of N.  For example:

    sub log10 {
	my $n = shift;
	return log($n)/log(10);
    }

See also L</exp> for the inverse operation.

=item lstat EXPR
X<lstat>

=item lstat

Does the same thing as the C<stat> function (including setting the
special C<_> filehandle) but stats a symbolic link instead of the file
the symbolic link points to.  If symbolic links are unimplemented on
your system, a normal C<stat> is done.  For much more detailed
information, please see the documentation for C<stat>.

If EXPR is omitted, stats C<$_>.

=item m//

The match operator.  See L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.

=item map BLOCK LIST
X<map>

=item map EXPR,LIST

Evaluates the BLOCK or EXPR for each element of LIST (locally setting
C<$_> to each element) and returns the list value composed of the
results of each such evaluation.  In scalar context, returns the
total number of elements so generated.  Evaluates BLOCK or EXPR in
list context, so each element of LIST may produce zero, one, or
more elements in the returned value.

    @chars = map(chr, @nums);

translates a list of numbers to the corresponding characters.  And

    %hash = map { get_a_key_for($_) => $_ } @array;

is just a funny way to write

    %hash = ();
    foreach (@array) {
	$hash{get_a_key_for($_)} = $_;
    }

Note that C<$_> is an alias to the list value, so it can be used to
modify the elements of the LIST.  While this is useful and supported,
it can cause bizarre results if the elements of LIST are not variables.
Using a regular C<foreach> loop for this purpose would be clearer in
most cases.  See also L</grep> for an array composed of those items of
the original list for which the BLOCK or EXPR evaluates to true.

If C<$_> is lexical in the scope where the C<map> appears (because it has
been declared with C<my $_>), then, in addition to being locally aliased to
the list elements, C<$_> keeps being lexical inside the block; that is, it
can't be seen from the outside, avoiding any potential side-effects.

C<{> starts both hash references and blocks, so C<map { ...> could be either
the start of map BLOCK LIST or map EXPR, LIST. Because perl doesn't look
ahead for the closing C<}> it has to take a guess at which its dealing with
based what it finds just after the C<{>. Usually it gets it right, but if it
doesn't it won't realize something is wrong until it gets to the C<}> and
encounters the missing (or unexpected) comma. The syntax error will be
reported close to the C<}> but you'll need to change something near the C<{>
such as using a unary C<+> to give perl some help:

    %hash = map {  "\L$_", 1  } @array  # perl guesses EXPR.  wrong
    %hash = map { +"\L$_", 1  } @array  # perl guesses BLOCK. right
    %hash = map { ("\L$_", 1) } @array  # this also works
    %hash = map {  lc($_), 1  } @array  # as does this.
    %hash = map +( lc($_), 1 ), @array  # this is EXPR and works!

    %hash = map  ( lc($_), 1 ), @array  # evaluates to (1, @array)

or to force an anon hash constructor use C<+{>:

   @hashes = map +{ lc($_), 1 }, @array # EXPR, so needs , at end

and you get list of anonymous hashes each with only 1 entry.

=item mkdir FILENAME,MASK
X<mkdir> X<md> X<directory, create>

=item mkdir FILENAME

=item mkdir

Creates the directory specified by FILENAME, with permissions
specified by MASK (as modified by C<umask>).  If it succeeds it
returns true, otherwise it returns false and sets C<$!> (errno).
If omitted, MASK defaults to 0777. If omitted, FILENAME defaults
to C<$_>.

In general, it is better to create directories with permissive MASK,
and let the user modify that with their C<umask>, than it is to supply
a restrictive MASK and give the user no way to be more permissive.
The exceptions to this rule are when the file or directory should be
kept private (mail files, for instance).  The perlfunc(1) entry on
C<umask> discusses the choice of MASK in more detail.

Note that according to the POSIX 1003.1-1996 the FILENAME may have any
number of trailing slashes.  Some operating and filesystems do not get
this right, so Perl automatically removes all trailing slashes to keep
everyone happy.

In order to recursively create a directory structure look at
the C<mkpath> function of the L<File::Path> module.

=item msgctl ID,CMD,ARG
X<msgctl>

Calls the System V IPC function msgctl(2).  You'll probably have to say

    use IPC::SysV;

first to get the correct constant definitions.  If CMD is C<IPC_STAT>,
then ARG must be a variable that will hold the returned C<msqid_ds>
structure.  Returns like C<ioctl>: the undefined value for error,
C<"0 but true"> for zero, or the actual return value otherwise.  See also
L<perlipc/"SysV IPC">, C<IPC::SysV>, and C<IPC::Semaphore> documentation.

=item msgget KEY,FLAGS
X<msgget>

Calls the System V IPC function msgget(2).  Returns the message queue
id, or the undefined value if there is an error.  See also
L<perlipc/"SysV IPC"> and C<IPC::SysV> and C<IPC::Msg> documentation.

=item msgrcv ID,VAR,SIZE,TYPE,FLAGS
X<msgrcv>

Calls the System V IPC function msgrcv to receive a message from
message queue ID into variable VAR with a maximum message size of
SIZE.  Note that when a message is received, the message type as a
native long integer will be the first thing in VAR, followed by the
actual message.  This packing may be opened with C<unpack("l! a*")>.
Taints the variable.  Returns true if successful, or false if there is
an error.  See also L<perlipc/"SysV IPC">, C<IPC::SysV>, and
C<IPC::SysV::Msg> documentation.

=item msgsnd ID,MSG,FLAGS
X<msgsnd>

Calls the System V IPC function msgsnd to send the message MSG to the
message queue ID.  MSG must begin with the native long integer message
type, and be followed by the length of the actual message, and finally
the message itself.  This kind of packing can be achieved with
C<pack("l! a*", $type, $message)>.  Returns true if successful,
or false if there is an error.  See also C<IPC::SysV>
and C<IPC::SysV::Msg> documentation.

=item my EXPR
X<my>

=item my TYPE EXPR

=item my EXPR : ATTRS

=item my TYPE EXPR : ATTRS

A C<my> declares the listed variables to be local (lexically) to the
enclosing block, file, or C<eval>.  If more than one value is listed,
the list must be placed in parentheses.

The exact semantics and interface of TYPE and ATTRS are still
evolving.  TYPE is currently bound to the use of C<fields> pragma,
and attributes are handled using the C<attributes> pragma, or starting
from Perl 5.8.0 also via the C<Attribute::Handlers> module.  See
L<perlsub/"Private Variables via my()"> for details, and L<fields>,
L<attributes>, and L<Attribute::Handlers>.

=item next LABEL
X<next> X<continue>

=item next

The C<next> command is like the C<continue> statement in C; it starts
the next iteration of the loop:

    LINE: while (<STDIN>) {
	next LINE if /^#/;	# discard comments
	#...
    }

Note that if there were a C<continue> block on the above, it would get
executed even on discarded lines.  If the LABEL is omitted, the command
refers to the innermost enclosing loop.

C<next> cannot be used to exit a block which returns a value such as
C<eval {}>, C<sub {}> or C<do {}>, and should not be used to exit
a grep() or map() operation.

Note that a block by itself is semantically identical to a loop
that executes once.  Thus C<next> will exit such a block early.

See also L</continue> for an illustration of how C<last>, C<next>, and
C<redo> work.

=item no Module VERSION LIST
X<no>

=item no Module VERSION

=item no Module LIST

=item no Module

=item no VERSION

See the C<use> function, of which C<no> is the opposite.

=item oct EXPR
X<oct> X<octal> X<hex> X<hexadecimal> X<binary> X<bin>

=item oct

Interprets EXPR as an octal string and returns the corresponding
value.  (If EXPR happens to start off with C<0x>, interprets it as a
hex string.  If EXPR starts off with C<0b>, it is interpreted as a
binary string.  Leading whitespace is ignored in all three cases.)
The following will handle decimal, binary, octal, and hex in the standard
Perl or C notation:

    $val = oct($val) if $val =~ /^0/;

If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.   To go the other way (produce a number
in octal), use sprintf() or printf():

    $perms = (stat("filename"))[2] & 07777;
    $oct_perms = sprintf "%lo", $perms;

The oct() function is commonly used when a string such as C<644> needs
to be converted into a file mode, for example. (Although perl will
automatically convert strings into numbers as needed, this automatic
conversion assumes base 10.)

=item open FILEHANDLE,EXPR
X<open> X<pipe> X<file, open> X<fopen>

=item open FILEHANDLE,MODE,EXPR

=item open FILEHANDLE,MODE,EXPR,LIST

=item open FILEHANDLE,MODE,REFERENCE

=item open FILEHANDLE

Opens the file whose filename is given by EXPR, and associates it with
FILEHANDLE.

Simple examples to open a file for reading:

    open(my $fh, '<', "input.txt") or die $!;

and for writing:

    open(my $fh, '>', "output.txt") or die $!;

(The following is a comprehensive reference to open(): for a gentler
introduction you may consider L<perlopentut>.)

If FILEHANDLE is an undefined scalar variable (or array or hash element)
the variable is assigned a reference to a new anonymous filehandle,
otherwise if FILEHANDLE is an expression, its value is used as the name of
the real filehandle wanted.  (This is considered a symbolic reference, so
C<use strict 'refs'> should I<not> be in effect.)

If EXPR is omitted, the scalar variable of the same name as the
FILEHANDLE contains the filename.  (Note that lexical variables--those
declared with C<my>--will not work for this purpose; so if you're
using C<my>, specify EXPR in your call to open.)

If three or more arguments are specified then the mode of opening and
the file name are separate. If MODE is C<< '<' >> or nothing, the file
is opened for input.  If MODE is C<< '>' >>, the file is truncated and
opened for output, being created if necessary.  If MODE is C<<< '>>' >>>,
the file is opened for appending, again being created if necessary.

You can put a C<'+'> in front of the C<< '>' >> or C<< '<' >> to
indicate that you want both read and write access to the file; thus
C<< '+<' >> is almost always preferred for read/write updates--the C<<
'+>' >> mode would clobber the file first.  You can't usually use
either read-write mode for updating textfiles, since they have
variable length records.  See the B<-i> switch in L<perlrun> for a
better approach.  The file is created with permissions of C<0666>
modified by the process' C<umask> value.

These various prefixes correspond to the fopen(3) modes of C<'r'>,
C<'r+'>, C<'w'>, C<'w+'>, C<'a'>, and C<'a+'>.

In the 2-arguments (and 1-argument) form of the call the mode and
filename should be concatenated (in this order), possibly separated by
spaces.  It is possible to omit the mode in these forms if the mode is
C<< '<' >>.

If the filename begins with C<'|'>, the filename is interpreted as a
command to which output is to be piped, and if the filename ends with a
C<'|'>, the filename is interpreted as a command which pipes output to
us.  See L<perlipc/"Using open() for IPC">
for more examples of this.  (You are not allowed to C<open> to