use English;
-at the top of your program. This will alias all the short names to the
-long names in the current package. Some even have medium names,
-generally borrowed from B<awk>.
+at the top of your program. This aliases all the short names to the long
+names in the current package. Some even have medium names, generally
+borrowed from B<awk>. In general, it's best to use the
-If you don't mind the performance hit, variables that depend on the
-currently selected filehandle may instead be set by calling an
-appropriate object method on the IO::Handle object. (Summary lines
-below for this contain the word HANDLE.) First you must say
+ use English '-no_match_vars';
+
+invocation if you don't need $PREMATCH, $MATCH, or $POSTMATCH, as it avoids
+a certain performance hit with the use of regular expressions. See
+L<English>.
+
+Variables that depend on the currently selected filehandle may be set by
+calling an appropriate object method on the IO::Handle object, although
+this is less efficient than using the regular built-in variables. (Summary
+lines below for this contain the word HANDLE.) First you must say
use IO::Handle;
HANDLE->method(EXPR)
Each method returns the old value of the IO::Handle attribute.
-The methods each take an optional EXPR, which if supplied specifies the
+The methods each take an optional EXPR, which, if supplied, specifies the
new value for the IO::Handle attribute in question. If not supplied,
most methods do nothing to the current value--except for
autoflush(), which will assume a 1 for you, just to be different.
+
Because loading in the IO::Handle class is an expensive operation, you should
learn how to use the regular built-in variables.
you try to assign to this variable, either directly or indirectly through
a reference, you'll raise a run-time exception.
+You should be very careful when modifying the default values of most
+special variables described in this document. In most cases you want
+to localize these variables before changing them, since if you don't,
+the change may affect other modules which rely on the default values
+of the special variables that you have changed. This is one of the
+correct ways to read the whole file at once:
+
+ open my $fh, "foo" or die $!;
+ local $/; # enable localized slurp mode
+ my $content = <$fh>;
+ close $fh;
+
+But the following code is quite bad:
+
+ open my $fh, "foo" or die $!;
+ undef $/; # enable slurp mode
+ my $content = <$fh>;
+ close $fh;
+
+since some other module, may want to read data from some file in the
+default "line mode", so if the code we have just presented has been
+executed, the global value of C<$/> is now changed for any other code
+running inside the same Perl interpreter.
+
+Usually when a variable is localized you want to make sure that this
+change affects the shortest scope possible. So unless you are already
+inside some short C<{}> block, you should create one yourself. For
+example:
+
+ my $content = '';
+ open my $fh, "foo" or die $!;
+ {
+ local $/;
+ $content = <$fh>;
+ }
+ close $fh;
+
+Here is an example of how your own code can go broken:
+
+ for (1..5){
+ nasty_break();
+ print "$_ ";
+ }
+ sub nasty_break {
+ $_ = 5;
+ # do something with $_
+ }
+
+You probably expect this code to print:
+
+ 1 2 3 4 5
+
+but instead you get:
+
+ 5 5 5 5 5
+
+Why? Because nasty_break() modifies C<$_> without localizing it
+first. The fix is to add local():
+
+ local $_ = 5;
+
+It's easy to notice the problem in such a short example, but in more
+complicated code you are looking for trouble if you don't localize
+changes to the special variables.
+
The following list is ordered by scalar variables first, then the
arrays, then the hashes.
=item *
-The default place to put an input record when a C<E<lt>FHE<gt>>
+The default place to put an input record when a C<< <FH> >>
operation's result is tested by itself as the sole criterion of a C<while>
test. Outside a C<while> test, this will not happen.
=over 8
-=item $E<lt>I<digits>E<gt>
+=item $a
+
+=item $b
+
+Special package variables when using sort(), see L<perlfunc/sort>.
+Because of this specialness $a and $b don't need to be declared
+(using local(), use vars, or our()) even when using the strict
+vars pragma. Don't lexicalize them with C<my $a> or C<my $b>
+if you want to be able to use them in the sort() comparison block
+or function.
+
+=back
+
+=over 8
+
+=item $<I<digits>>
Contains the subpattern from the corresponding set of capturing
parentheses from the last pattern match, not counting patterns
and dynamically scoped to the current BLOCK.
The use of this variable anywhere in a program imposes a considerable
-performance penalty on all regular expression matches. See L<BUGS>.
+performance penalty on all regular expression matches. See L</BUGS>.
=item $PREMATCH
string.) This variable is read-only.
The use of this variable anywhere in a program imposes a considerable
-performance penalty on all regular expression matches. See L<BUGS>.
+performance penalty on all regular expression matches. See L</BUGS>.
=item $POSTMATCH
enclosed by the current BLOCK). (Mnemonic: C<'> often follows a quoted
string.) Example:
- $_ = 'abcdefghi';
+ local $_ = 'abcdefghi';
/def/;
print "$`:$&:$'\n"; # prints abc:def:ghi
This variable is read-only and dynamically scoped to the current BLOCK.
The use of this variable anywhere in a program imposes a considerable
-performance penalty on all regular expression matches. See L<BUGS>.
+performance penalty on all regular expression matches. See L</BUGS>.
=item $LAST_PAREN_MATCH
=item $+
-The last bracket matched by the last search pattern. This is useful if
-you don't know which one of a set of alternative patterns matched. For
-example:
+The text matched by the last bracket of the last successful search pattern.
+This is useful if you don't know which one of a set of alternative patterns
+matched. For example:
/Version: (.*)|Revision: (.*)/ && ($rev = $+);
(Mnemonic: be positive and forward looking.)
This variable is read-only and dynamically scoped to the current BLOCK.
-=item @+
+=item $^N
-$+[0] is the offset of the end of the last successful match.
-C<$+[>I<n>C<]> is the offset of the end of the substring matched by
-I<n>-th subpattern, or undef if the subpattern did not match.
+The text matched by the used group most-recently closed (i.e. the group
+with the rightmost closing parenthesis) of the last successful search
+pattern. (Mnemonic: the (possibly) Nested parenthesis that most
+recently closed.)
-Thus after a match against $_, $& coincides with C<substr $_, $-[0],
-$+[0] - $-[0]>. Similarly, C<$>I<n> coincides with C<substr $_, $-[>I<n>C<],
-$+[>I<n>C<] - $-[>I<n>C<]> if C<$-[>I<n>C<]> is defined, and $+ coincides with
-C<substr $_, $-[$#-], $+[$#-]>. One can use C<$#+> to find the number
-of subgroups in the last successful match. Contrast with
-C<$#->, the last I<matched> subgroup. Compare with C<@->.
+This is primarily used inside C<(?{...})> blocks for examining text
+recently matched. For example, to effectively capture text to a variable
+(in addition to C<$1>, C<$2>, etc.), replace C<(...)> with
+
+ (?:(...)(?{ $var = $^N }))
+
+By setting and then using C<$var> in this way relieves you from having to
+worry about exactly which numbered set of parentheses they are.
+
+This variable is dynamically scoped to the current BLOCK.
+
+=item @LAST_MATCH_END
+
+=item @+
+
+This array holds the offsets of the ends of the last successful
+submatches in the currently active dynamic scope. C<$+[0]> is
+the offset into the string of the end of the entire match. This
+is the same value as what the C<pos> function returns when called
+on the variable that was matched against. The I<n>th element
+of this array holds the offset of the I<n>th submatch, so
+C<$+[1]> is the offset past where $1 ends, C<$+[2]> the offset
+past where $2 ends, and so on. You can use C<$#+> to determine
+how many subgroups were in the last successful match. See the
+examples given for the C<@-> variable.
=item $MULTILINE_MATCHING
=item $*
-Set to 1 to do multi-line matching within a string, 0 to tell Perl
-that it can assume that strings contain a single line, for the purpose
-of optimizing pattern matches. Pattern matches on strings containing
-multiple newlines can produce confusing results when C<$*> is 0. Default
-is 0. (Mnemonic: * matches multiple things.) This variable
-influences the interpretation of only C<^> and C<$>. A literal newline can
-be searched for even when C<$* == 0>.
+Set to a non-zero integer value to do multi-line matching within a
+string, 0 (or undefined) to tell Perl that it can assume that strings
+contain a single line, for the purpose of optimizing pattern matches.
+Pattern matches on strings containing multiple newlines can produce
+confusing results when C<$*> is 0 or undefined. Default is undefined.
+(Mnemonic: * matches multiple things.) This variable influences the
+interpretation of only C<^> and C<$>. A literal newline can be searched
+for even when C<$* == 0>.
Use of C<$*> is deprecated in modern Perl, supplanted by
the C</s> and C</m> modifiers on pattern matching.
-=item input_line_number HANDLE EXPR
+Assigning a non-numerical value to C<$*> triggers a warning (and makes
+C<$*> act if C<$* == 0>), while assigning a numerical value to C<$*>
+makes that an implicit C<int> is applied on the value.
+
+=item HANDLE->input_line_number(EXPR)
=item $INPUT_LINE_NUMBER
=item $.
-The current input record number for the last file handle from which
-you just read() (or called a C<seek> or C<tell> on). The value
-may be different from the actual physical line number in the file,
-depending on what notion of "line" is in effect--see C<$/> on how
-to change that. An explicit close on a filehandle resets the line
-number. Because C<E<lt>E<gt>> never does an explicit close, line
-numbers increase across ARGV files (but see examples in L<perlfunc/eof>).
-Consider this variable read-only: setting it does not reposition
-the seek pointer; you'll have to do that on your own. Localizing C<$.>
-has the effect of also localizing Perl's notion of "the last read
-filehandle". (Mnemonic: many programs use "." to mean the current line
-number.)
-
-=item input_record_separator HANDLE EXPR
+Current line number for the last filehandle accessed.
+
+Each filehandle in Perl counts the number of lines that have been read
+from it. (Depending on the value of C<$/>, Perl's idea of what
+constitutes a line may not match yours.) When a line is read from a
+filehandle (via readline() or C<< <> >>), or when tell() or seek() is
+called on it, C<$.> becomes an alias to the line counter for that
+filehandle.
+
+You can adjust the counter by assigning to C<$.>, but this will not
+actually move the seek pointer. I<Localizing C<$.> will not localize
+the filehandle's line count>. Instead, it will localize perl's notion
+of which filehandle C<$.> is currently aliased to.
+
+C<$.> is reset when the filehandle is closed, but B<not> when an open
+filehandle is reopened without an intervening close(). For more
+details, see L<perlop/"IE<sol>O Operators">. Because C<< <> >> never does
+an explicit close, line numbers increase across ARGV files (but see
+examples in L<perlfunc/eof>).
+
+You can also use C<< HANDLE->input_line_number(EXPR) >> to access the
+line counter for a given filehandle without having to worry about
+which handle you last accessed.
+
+(Mnemonic: many programs use "." to mean the current line number.)
+
+=item IO::Handle->input_record_separator(EXPR)
=item $INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR
paragraph, even if it's a newline. (Mnemonic: / delimits
line boundaries when quoting poetry.)
- undef $/; # enable "slurp" mode
- $_ = <FH>; # whole file now here
+ local $/; # enable "slurp" mode
+ local $_ = <FH>; # whole file now here
s/\n[ \t]+/ /g;
Remember: the value of C<$/> is a string, not a regex. B<awk> has to be
instead of lines, with the maximum record size being the referenced
integer. So this:
- $/ = \32768; # or \"32768", or \$var_containing_32768
- open(FILE, $myfile);
- $_ = <FILE>;
+ local $/ = \32768; # or \"32768", or \$var_containing_32768
+ open my $fh, $myfile or die $!;
+ local $_ = <$fh>;
will read a record of no more than 32768 bytes from FILE. If you're
not reading from a record-oriented file (or your OS doesn't have
See also L<perlport/"Newlines">. Also see C<$.>.
-=item autoflush HANDLE EXPR
+=item HANDLE->autoflush(EXPR)
=item $OUTPUT_AUTOFLUSH
happening. This has no effect on input buffering. See L<perlfunc/getc>
for that. (Mnemonic: when you want your pipes to be piping hot.)
-=item output_field_separator HANDLE EXPR
+=item IO::Handle->output_field_separator EXPR
=item $OUTPUT_FIELD_SEPARATOR
between fields. (Mnemonic: what is printed when there is a "," in
your print statement.)
-=item output_record_separator HANDLE EXPR
+=item IO::Handle->output_record_separator EXPR
=item $OUTPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR
Use of C<$#> is deprecated.
-=item format_page_number HANDLE EXPR
+=item HANDLE->format_page_number(EXPR)
=item $FORMAT_PAGE_NUMBER
Used with formats.
(Mnemonic: % is page number in B<nroff>.)
-=item format_lines_per_page HANDLE EXPR
+=item HANDLE->format_lines_per_page(EXPR)
=item $FORMAT_LINES_PER_PAGE
Used with formats.
(Mnemonic: = has horizontal lines.)
-=item format_lines_left HANDLE EXPR
+=item HANDLE->format_lines_left(EXPR)
=item $FORMAT_LINES_LEFT
Used with formats.
(Mnemonic: lines_on_page - lines_printed.)
+=item @LAST_MATCH_START
+
=item @-
$-[0] is the offset of the start of the last successful match.
C<$#+>, the number of subgroups in the regular expression. Compare
with C<@+>.
-=item format_name HANDLE EXPR
+This array holds the offsets of the beginnings of the last
+successful submatches in the currently active dynamic scope.
+C<$-[0]> is the offset into the string of the beginning of the
+entire match. The I<n>th element of this array holds the offset
+of the I<n>th submatch, so C<$-[1]> is the offset where $1
+begins, C<$-[2]> the offset where $2 begins, and so on.
+
+After a match against some variable $var:
+
+=over 5
+
+=item C<$`> is the same as C<substr($var, 0, $-[0])>
+
+=item C<$&> is the same as C<substr($var, $-[0], $+[0] - $-[0])>
+
+=item C<$'> is the same as C<substr($var, $+[0])>
+
+=item C<$1> is the same as C<substr($var, $-[1], $+[1] - $-[1])>
+
+=item C<$2> is the same as C<substr($var, $-[2], $+[2] - $-[2])>
+
+=item C<$3> is the same as C<substr $var, $-[3], $+[3] - $-[3])>
+
+=back
+
+=item HANDLE->format_name(EXPR)
=item $FORMAT_NAME
channel. Default is the name of the filehandle. (Mnemonic: brother to
C<$^>.)
-=item format_top_name HANDLE EXPR
+=item HANDLE->format_top_name(EXPR)
=item $FORMAT_TOP_NAME
output channel. Default is the name of the filehandle with _TOP
appended. (Mnemonic: points to top of page.)
-=item format_line_break_characters HANDLE EXPR
+=item IO::Handle->format_line_break_characters EXPR
=item $FORMAT_LINE_BREAK_CHARACTERS
S<" \n-">, to break on whitespace or hyphens. (Mnemonic: a "colon" in
poetry is a part of a line.)
-=item format_formfeed HANDLE EXPR
+=item IO::Handle->format_formfeed EXPR
=item $FORMAT_FORMFEED
successful call to wait() or waitpid(), or from the system()
operator. This is just the 16-bit status word returned by the
wait() system call (or else is made up to look like it). Thus, the
-exit value of the subprocess is really (C<$? E<gt>E<gt> 8>), and
+exit value of the subprocess is really (C<<< $? >> 8 >>>), and
C<$? & 127> gives which signal, if any, the process died from, and
C<$? & 128> reports whether there was a core dump. (Mnemonic:
similar to B<sh> and B<ksh>.)
Under VMS, the pragma C<use vmsish 'status'> makes C<$?> reflect the
actual VMS exit status, instead of the default emulation of POSIX
-status.
+status; see L<perlvms/$?> for details.
Also see L<Error Indicators>.
+=item ${^ENCODING}
+
+The I<object reference> to the Encode object that is used to convert
+the source code to Unicode. Thanks to this variable your perl script
+does not have to be written in UTF-8. Default is I<undef>. The direct
+manipulation of this variable is highly discouraged. See L<encoding>
+for more details.
+
=item $OS_ERROR
=item $ERRNO
=item $!
If used numerically, yields the current value of the C C<errno>
-variable, with all the usual caveats. (This means that you shouldn't
-depend on the value of C<$!> to be anything in particular unless
-you've gotten a specific error return indicating a system error.)
+variable, or in other words, if a system or library call fails, it
+sets this variable. This means that the value of C<$!> is meaningful
+only I<immediately> after a B<failure>:
+
+ if (open(FH, $filename)) {
+ # Here $! is meaningless.
+ ...
+ } else {
+ # ONLY here is $! meaningful.
+ ...
+ # Already here $! might be meaningless.
+ }
+ # Since here we might have either success or failure,
+ # here $! is meaningless.
+
+In the above I<meaningless> stands for anything: zero, non-zero,
+C<undef>. A successful system or library call does B<not> set
+the variable to zero.
+
If used an a string, yields the corresponding system error string.
You can assign a number to C<$!> to set I<errno> if, for instance,
you want C<"$!"> to return the string for error I<n>, or you want
Also see L<Error Indicators>.
+=item %!
+
+Each element of C<%!> has a true value only if C<$!> is set to that
+value. For example, C<$!{ENOENT}> is true if and only if the current
+value of C<$!> is C<ENOENT>; that is, if the most recent error was
+"No such file or directory" (or its moral equivalent: not all operating
+systems give that exact error, and certainly not all languages).
+To check if a particular key is meaningful on your system, use
+C<exists $!{the_key}>; for a list of legal keys, use C<keys %!>.
+See L<Errno> for more information, and also see above for the
+validity of C<$!>.
+
=item $EXTENDED_OS_ERROR
=item $^E
=item $@
-The Perl syntax error message from the last eval() operator. If null, the
-last eval() parsed and executed correctly (although the operations you
-invoked may have failed in the normal fashion). (Mnemonic: Where was
-the syntax error "at"?)
+The Perl syntax error message from the last eval() operator.
+If $@ is the null string, the last eval() parsed and executed
+correctly (although the operations you invoked may have failed in the
+normal fashion). (Mnemonic: Where was the syntax error "at"?)
Warning messages are not collected in this variable. You can,
however, set up a routine to process warnings by setting C<$SIG{__WARN__}>
=item $<
The real uid of this process. (Mnemonic: it's the uid you came I<from>,
-if you're running setuid.)
+if you're running setuid.) You can change both the real uid and
+the effective uid at the same time by using POSIX::setuid().
=item $EFFECTIVE_USER_ID
$< = $>; # set real to effective uid
($<,$>) = ($>,$<); # swap real and effective uid
+You can change both the effective uid and the real uid at the same
+time by using POSIX::setuid().
+
(Mnemonic: it's the uid you went I<to>, if you're running setuid.)
-C<$E<lt>> and C<$E<gt>> can be swapped only on machines
+C<< $< >> and C<< $> >> can be swapped only on machines
supporting setreuid().
=item $REAL_GROUP_ID
set the real gid. So the value given by C<$(> should I<not> be assigned
back to C<$(> without being forced numeric, such as by adding zero.
+You can change both the real gid and the effective gid at the same
+time by using POSIX::setgid().
+
(Mnemonic: parentheses are used to I<group> things. The real gid is the
group you I<left>, if you're running setgid.)
to force an effective gid of 5 and an effectively empty setgroups()
list, say C< $) = "5 5" >.
+You can change both the effective gid and the real gid at the same
+time by using POSIX::setgid() (use only a single numeric argument).
+
(Mnemonic: parentheses are used to I<group> things. The effective gid
is the group that's I<right> for you, if you're running setgid.)
-C<$E<lt>>, C<$E<gt>>, C<$(> and C<$)> can be set only on
+C<< $< >>, C<< $> >>, C<$(> and C<$)> can be set only on
machines that support the corresponding I<set[re][ug]id()> routine. C<$(>
and C<$)> can be swapped only on machines supporting setregid().
program state than it is for hiding the program you're running.
(Mnemonic: same as B<sh> and B<ksh>.)
+Note for BSD users: setting C<$0> does not completely remove "perl"
+from the ps(1) output. For example, setting C<$0> to C<"foobar"> will
+result in C<"perl: foobar (perl)">. This is an operating system
+feature.
+
=item $[
The index of the first element in an array, and of the first character
directive, and cannot influence the behavior of any other file.
Its use is highly discouraged.
-=item $PERL_VERSION
-
=item $]
The version + patchlevel / 1000 of the Perl interpreter. This variable
See also the documentation of C<use VERSION> and C<require VERSION>
for a convenient way to fail if the running Perl interpreter is too old.
+The floating point representation can sometimes lead to inaccurate
+numeric comparisons. See C<$^V> for a more modern representation of
+the Perl version that allows accurate string comparisons.
+
=item $COMPILING
=item $^C
preserved even if the open() fails. (Ordinary file descriptors are
closed before the open() is attempted.) The close-on-exec
status of a file descriptor will be decided according to the value of
-C<$^F> when the open() or pipe() was called, not the time of the exec().
+C<$^F> when the corresponding file, pipe, or socket was opened, not the
+time of the exec().
=item $^H
$^M = 'a' x (1 << 16);
-would allocate a 64K buffer for use when in emergency. See the
+would allocate a 64K buffer for use in an emergency. See the
F<INSTALL> file in the Perl distribution for information on how to
enable this option. To discourage casual use of this advanced
-feature, there is no L<English> long name for this variable.
+feature, there is no L<English|English> long name for this variable.
=item $OSNAME
is identical to C<$Config{'osname'}>. See also L<Config> and the
B<-V> command-line switch documented in L<perlrun>.
+In Windows platforms, $^O is not very helpful: since it is always
+C<MSWin32>, it doesn't tell the difference between 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/CE.
+Use Win32::GetOSVersion() (see L<perlport>) and other means (like for
+example the presence/absence of some files) to distinguish between
+the variants.
+
+=item ${^OPEN}
+
+An internal variable used by PerlIO. A string in two parts, separated
+by a C<\0> byte, the first part is the input disciplines, the second
+part is the output disciplines.
+
=item $PERLDB
=item $^P
Start with single-step on.
+=item 0x40
+
+Use subroutine address instead of name when reporting.
+
+=item 0x80
+
+Report C<goto &subroutine> as well.
+
+=item 0x100
+
+Provide informative "file" names for evals based on the place they were compiled.
+
+=item 0x200
+
+Provide informative names to anonymous subroutines based on the place they
+were compiled.
+
=back
Some bits may be relevant at compile-time only, some at
run-time only. This is a new mechanism and the details may change.
+=item $LAST_REGEXP_CODE_RESULT
+
=item $^R
The result of evaluation of the last successful C<(?{ code })>
regular expression assertion (see L<perlre>). May be written to.
+=item $EXCEPTIONS_BEING_CAUGHT
+
=item $^S
Current state of the interpreter. Undefined if parsing of the current
epoch (beginning of 1970). The values returned by the B<-M>, B<-A>,
and B<-C> filetests are based on this value.
+=item ${^TAINT}
+
+Reflects if taint mode is on or off (i.e. if the program was run with
+B<-T> or not). True for on, false for off.
+
+=item $PERL_VERSION
+
+=item $^V
+
+The revision, version, and subversion of the Perl interpreter, represented
+as a string composed of characters with those ordinals. Thus in Perl v5.6.0
+it equals C<chr(5) . chr(6) . chr(0)> and will return true for
+C<$^V eq v5.6.0>. Note that the characters in this string value can
+potentially be in Unicode range.
+
+This can be used to determine whether the Perl interpreter executing a
+script is in the right range of versions. (Mnemonic: use ^V for Version
+Control.) Example:
+
+ warn "No \"our\" declarations!\n" if $^V and $^V lt v5.6.0;
+
+To convert C<$^V> into its string representation use sprintf()'s
+C<"%vd"> conversion:
+
+ printf "version is v%vd\n", $^V; # Perl's version
+
+See the documentation of C<use VERSION> and C<require VERSION>
+for a convenient way to fail if the running Perl interpreter is too old.
+
+See also C<$]> for an older representation of the Perl version.
+
=item $WARNING
=item $^W
was used, false otherwise, but directly modifiable. (Mnemonic:
related to the B<-w> switch.) See also L<warnings>.
-=item ${^Warnings}
+=item ${^WARNING_BITS}
The current set of warning checks enabled by the C<use warnings> pragma.
See the documentation of C<warnings> for more details.
+=item ${^WIDE_SYSTEM_CALLS}
+
+Global flag that enables system calls made by Perl to use wide character
+APIs native to the system, if available. This is currently only implemented
+on the Windows platform.
+
+This can also be enabled from the command line using the C<-C> switch.
+
+The initial value is typically C<0> for compatibility with Perl versions
+earlier than 5.6, but may be automatically set to C<1> by Perl if the system
+provides a user-settable default (e.g., C<$ENV{LC_CTYPE}>).
+
+The C<bytes> pragma always overrides the effect of this flag in the current
+lexical scope. See L<bytes>.
+
=item $EXECUTABLE_NAME
=item $^X
-The name that the Perl binary itself was executed as, from C's C<argv[0]>.
-This may not be a full pathname, nor even necessarily in your path.
+The name used to execute the current copy of Perl, from C's
+C<argv[0]>.
+
+Depending on the host operating system, the value of $^X may be
+a relative or absolute pathname of the perl program file, or may
+be the string used to invoke perl but not the pathname of the
+perl program file. Also, most operating systems permit invoking
+programs that are not in the PATH environment variable, so there
+is no guarantee that the value of $^X is in PATH. For VMS, the
+value may or may not include a version number.
+
+You usually can use the value of $^X to re-invoke an independent
+copy of the same perl that is currently running, e.g.,
+
+ @first_run = `$^X -le "print int rand 100 for 1..100"`;
+
+But recall that not all operating systems support forking or
+capturing of the output of commands, so this complex statement
+may not be portable.
+
+It is not safe to use the value of $^X as a path name of a file,
+as some operating systems that have a mandatory suffix on
+executable files do not require use of the suffix when invoking
+a command. To convert the value of $^X to a path name, use the
+following statements:
+
+# Build up a set of file names (not command names).
+ use Config;
+ $this_perl = $^X;
+ if ($^O ne 'VMS')
+ {$this_perl .= $Config{_exe}
+ unless $this_perl =~ m/$Config{_exe}$/i;}
+
+Because many operating systems permit anyone with read access to
+the Perl program file to make a copy of it, patch the copy, and
+then execute the copy, the security-conscious Perl programmer
+should take care to invoke the installed copy of perl, not the
+copy referenced by $^X. The following statements accomplish
+this goal, and produce a pathname that can be invoked as a
+command or referenced as a file.
+
+ use Config;
+ $secure_perl_path = $Config{perlpath};
+ if ($^O ne 'VMS')
+ {$secure_perl_path .= $Config{_exe}
+ unless $secure_perl_path =~ m/$Config{_exe}$/i;}
+
+=item ARGV
+
+The special filehandle that iterates over command-line filenames in
+C<@ARGV>. Usually written as the null filehandle in the angle operator
+C<< <> >>. Note that currently C<ARGV> only has its magical effect
+within the C<< <> >> operator; elsewhere it is just a plain filehandle
+corresponding to the last file opened by C<< <> >>. In particular,
+passing C<\*ARGV> as a parameter to a function that expects a filehandle
+may not cause your function to automatically read the contents of all the
+files in C<@ARGV>.
=item $ARGV
-contains the name of the current file when reading from E<lt>E<gt>.
+contains the name of the current file when reading from <>.
=item @ARGV
one, because C<$ARGV[0]> is the first argument, I<not> the program's
command name itself. See C<$0> for the command name.
+=item @F
+
+The array @F contains the fields of each line read in when autosplit
+mode is turned on. See L<perlrun> for the B<-a> switch. This array
+is package-specific, and must be declared or given a full package name
+if not in package main when running under C<strict 'vars'>.
+
=item @INC
The array @INC contains the list of places that the C<do EXPR>,
initially consists of the arguments to any B<-I> command-line
switches, followed by the default Perl library, probably
F</usr/local/lib/perl>, followed by ".", to represent the current
-directory. If you need to modify this at runtime, you should use
+directory. ("." will not be appended if taint checks are enabled, either by
+C<-T> or by C<-t>.) If you need to modify this at runtime, you should use
the C<use lib> pragma to get the machine-dependent library properly
loaded also:
use lib '/mypath/libdir/';
use SomeMod;
+You can also insert hooks into the file inclusion system by putting Perl
+code directly into @INC. Those hooks may be subroutine references, array
+references or blessed objects. See L<perlfunc/require> for details.
+
=item @_
Within a subroutine the array @_ contains the parameters passed to that
operator uses this hash to determine whether a particular file has
already been included.
+If the file was loaded via a hook (e.g. a subroutine reference, see
+L<perlfunc/require> for a description of these hooks), this hook is
+by default inserted into %INC in place of a filename. Note, however,
+that the hook may have set the %INC entry by itself to provide some more
+specific info.
+
=item %ENV
=item $ENV{expr}
following Perl expression, which uses a single-quoted string:
eval q{
- open PIPE, "/cdrom/install |";
- @res = <PIPE>;
- close PIPE or die "bad pipe: $?, $!";
+ open my $pipe, "/cdrom/install |" or die $!;
+ my @res = <$pipe>;
+ close $pipe or die "bad pipe: $?, $!";
};
After execution of this statement all 4 variables may have been set.
(which will interpolate C<$!> and C<$?>!). (See also L<Fatal>,
though.)
-When the eval() expression above is executed, open(), C<<PIPEE<gt>>,
+When the eval() expression above is executed, open(), C<< <PIPE> >>,
and C<close> are translated to calls in the C run-time library and
thence to the operating system kernel. C<$!> is set to the C library's
C<errno> if one of these calls fails.
in the scope of C<use English>. For that reason, saying C<use
English> in libraries is strongly discouraged. See the
Devel::SawAmpersand module documentation from CPAN
-(http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/by-module/Devel/Devel-SawAmpersand-0.10.readme)
+( http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Devel/ )
for more information.
Having to even think about the C<$^S> variable in your exception
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff