=head1 NAME
+X<subroutine> X<function>
perlsub - Perl subroutines
=head1 SYNOPSIS
To declare subroutines:
+X<subroutine, declaration> X<sub>
sub NAME; # A "forward" declaration.
sub NAME(PROTO); # ditto, but with prototypes
sub NAME(PROTO) : ATTRS BLOCK # with prototypes and attributes
To define an anonymous subroutine at runtime:
+X<subroutine, anonymous>
$subref = sub BLOCK; # no proto
$subref = sub (PROTO) BLOCK; # with proto
$subref = sub (PROTO) : ATTRS BLOCK; # with proto and attributes
To import subroutines:
+X<import>
use MODULE qw(NAME1 NAME2 NAME3);
To call subroutines:
+X<subroutine, call> X<call>
NAME(LIST); # & is optional with parentheses.
NAME LIST; # Parentheses optional if predeclared/imported.
contain as many or as few scalar elements as you'd like. (Often a
function without an explicit return statement is called a subroutine, but
there's really no difference from Perl's perspective.)
+X<subroutine, parameter> X<parameter>
Any arguments passed in show up in the array C<@_>. Therefore, if
you called a function with two arguments, those would be stored in
created the element whether or not the element was assigned to.)
Assigning to the whole array C<@_> removes that aliasing, and does
not update any arguments.
-
-The return value of a subroutine is the value of the last expression
-evaluated. More explicitly, a C<return> statement may be used to exit the
-subroutine, optionally specifying the returned value, which will be
-evaluated in the appropriate context (list, scalar, or void) depending
-on the context of the subroutine call. If you specify no return value,
-the subroutine returns an empty list in list context, the undefined
-value in scalar context, or nothing in void context. If you return
-one or more aggregates (arrays and hashes), these will be flattened
-together into one large indistinguishable list.
+X<subroutine, argument> X<argument> X<@_>
+
+A C<return> statement may be used to exit a subroutine, optionally
+specifying the returned value, which will be evaluated in the
+appropriate context (list, scalar, or void) depending on the context of
+the subroutine call. If you specify no return value, the subroutine
+returns an empty list in list context, the undefined value in scalar
+context, or nothing in void context. If you return one or more
+aggregates (arrays and hashes), these will be flattened together into
+one large indistinguishable list.
+
+If no C<return> is found and if the last statement is an expression, its
+value is returned. If the last statement is a loop control structure
+like a C<foreach> or a C<while>, the returned value is unspecified. The
+empty sub returns the empty list.
+X<subroutine, return value> X<return value> X<return>
Perl does not have named formal parameters. In practice all you
do is assign to a C<my()> list of these. Variables that aren't
and L<"Temporary Values via local()">. To create protected
environments for a set of functions in a separate package (and
probably a separate file), see L<perlmod/"Packages">.
+X<formal parameter> X<parameter, formal>
Example:
of turning call-by-reference into call-by-value. Otherwise a
function is free to do in-place modifications of C<@_> and change
its caller's values.
+X<call-by-reference> X<call-by-value>
upcase_in($v1, $v2); # this changes $v1 and $v2
sub upcase_in {
You aren't allowed to modify constants in this way, of course. If an
argument were actually literal and you tried to change it, you'd take a
(presumably fatal) exception. For example, this won't work:
+X<call-by-reference> X<call-by-value>
upcase_in("frederick");
reference using the C<&$subref()> or C<&{$subref}()> constructs,
although the C<< $subref->() >> notation solves that problem.
See L<perlref> for more about all that.
+X<&>
Subroutines may be called recursively. If a subroutine is called
using the C<&> form, the argument list is optional, and if omitted,
no C<@_> array is set up for the subroutine: the C<@_> array at the
time of the call is visible to subroutine instead. This is an
efficiency mechanism that new users may wish to avoid.
+X<recursion>
&foo(1,2,3); # pass three arguments
foo(1,2,3); # the same
disables any prototype checking on arguments you do provide. This
is partly for historical reasons, and partly for having a convenient way
to cheat if you know what you're doing. See L<Prototypes> below.
+X<&>
+
+Subroutines whose names are in all upper case are reserved to the Perl
+core, as are modules whose names are in all lower case. A subroutine in
+all capitals is a loosely-held convention meaning it will be called
+indirectly by the run-time system itself, usually due to a triggered event.
+Subroutines that do special, pre-defined things include C<AUTOLOAD>, C<CLONE>,
+C<DESTROY> plus all functions mentioned in L<perltie> and L<PerlIO::via>.
-Functions whose names are in all upper case are reserved to the Perl
-core, as are modules whose names are in all lower case. A
-function in all capitals is a loosely-held convention meaning it
-will be called indirectly by the run-time system itself, usually
-due to a triggered event. Functions that do special, pre-defined
-things include C<BEGIN>, C<CHECK>, C<INIT>, C<END>, C<AUTOLOAD>,
-C<CLONE> and C<DESTROY>--plus all functions mentioned in L<perltie>.
+The C<BEGIN>, C<CHECK>, C<INIT> and C<END> subroutines are not so much
+subroutines as named special code blocks, of which you can have more
+than one in a package, and which you can B<not> call explicitly. See
+L<perlmod/"BEGIN, CHECK, INIT and END">
=head2 Private Variables via my()
+X<my> X<variable, lexical> X<lexical> X<lexical variable> X<scope, lexical>
+X<lexical scope> X<attributes, my>
Synopsis:
my @oof = @bar; # declare @oof lexical, and init it
my $x : Foo = $y; # similar, with an attribute applied
-B<WARNING>: The use of attribute lists on C<my> declarations is
-experimental. This feature should not be relied upon. It may
-change or disappear in future releases of Perl. See L<attributes>.
+B<WARNING>: The use of attribute lists on C<my> declarations is still
+evolving. The current semantics and interface are subject to change.
+See L<attributes> and L<Attribute::Handlers>.
The C<my> operator declares the listed variables to be lexically
confined to the enclosing block, conditional (C<if/unless/elsif/else>),
or C<do/require/use>'d file. If more than one value is listed, the
list must be placed in parentheses. All listed elements must be
legal lvalues. Only alphanumeric identifiers may be lexically
-scoped--magical built-ins like C<$/> must currently be C<local>ize
+scoped--magical built-ins like C<$/> must currently be C<local>ized
with C<local> instead.
Unlike dynamic variables created by the C<local> operator, lexical
world, including any called subroutines. This is true if it's the
same subroutine called from itself or elsewhere--every call gets
its own copy.
+X<local>
This doesn't mean that a C<my> variable declared in a statically
enclosing lexical scope would be invisible. Only dynamic scopes
An C<eval()>, however, can see lexical variables of the scope it is
being evaluated in, so long as the names aren't hidden by declarations within
the C<eval()> itself. See L<perlref>.
+X<eval, scope of>
The parameter list to my() may be assigned to if desired, which allows you
to initialize your variables. (If no initializer is given for a
the scope of $answer extends from its declaration through the rest
of that conditional, including any C<elsif> and C<else> clauses,
-but not beyond it.
-
-B<NOTE:> The behaviour of a C<my> statement modified with a statement
-modifier conditional or loop construct (e.g. C<my $x if ...>) is
-B<undefined>. The value of the C<my> variable may be C<undef>, any
-previously assigned value, or possibly anything else. Don't rely on
-it. Future versions of perl might do something different from the
-version of perl you try it out on. Here be dragons.
+but not beyond it. See L<perlsyn/"Simple statements"> for information
+on the scope of variables in statements with modifiers.
The C<foreach> loop defaults to scoping its index variable dynamically
in the manner of C<local>. However, if the index variable is
prefixed with the keyword C<my>, or if there is already a lexical
by that name in scope, then a new lexical is created instead. Thus
in the loop
+X<foreach> X<for>
for my $i (1, 2, 3) {
some_function();
the scope of $i extends to the end of the loop, but not beyond it,
rendering the value of $i inaccessible within C<some_function()>.
+X<foreach> X<for>
Some users may wish to encourage the use of lexically scoped variables.
As an aid to catching implicit uses to package variables,
allowed to try to make a package variable (or other global) lexical:
my $pack::var; # ERROR! Illegal syntax
- my $_; # also illegal (currently)
In fact, a dynamic variable (also known as package or global variables)
are still accessible using the fully qualified C<::> notation even while a
this.
=head2 Persistent Private Variables
+X<state> X<state variable> X<static> X<variable, persistent> X<variable, static> X<closure>
+
+There are two ways to build persistent private variables in Perl 5.10.
+First, you can simply use the C<state> feature. Or, you can use closures,
+if you want to stay compatible with releases older than 5.10.
+
+=head3 Persistent variables via state()
+
+Beginning with perl 5.9.4, you can declare variables with the C<state>
+keyword in place of C<my>. For that to work, though, you must have
+enabled that feature beforehand, either by using the C<feature> pragma, or
+by using C<-E> on one-liners. (see L<feature>)
+
+For example, the following code maintains a private counter, incremented
+each time the gimme_another() function is called:
+
+ use feature 'state';
+ sub gimme_another { state $x; return ++$x }
+
+Also, since C<$x> is lexical, it can't be reached or modified by any Perl
+code outside.
+
+You can initialize state variables, and the assigment will be executed
+only once:
+
+ sub starts_from_42 { state $x = 42; return ++$x }
+
+You can also, as a syntactic shortcut, initialize more than one if they're
+all declared within the same state() clause:
+
+ state ($a, $b, $c) = ( 'one', 'two', 'three' );
+
+However, be warned that state variables declared as part of a list will
+get assigned each time the statement will be executed, since it will be
+considered as a regular list assigment, not one to be executed only once:
+
+ (state $x, my $y) = (1, 2); # $x gets reinitialized every time !
+
+B<Caveat>: the code at the right side of the assignment to a state
+variable will be executed every time; only the assignment is disabled. So,
+avoid code that has side-effects, or that is slow to execute. This might
+be optimized out in a future version of Perl.
+
+=head3 Persistent variables with closures
Just because a lexical variable is lexically (also called statically)
scoped to its enclosing block, C<eval>, or C<do> FILE, this doesn't mean that
all in the main program, you'll need to arrange for the C<my>
to be executed early, either by putting the whole block above
your main program, or more likely, placing merely a C<BEGIN>
-sub around it to make sure it gets executed before your program
+code block around it to make sure it gets executed before your program
starts to run:
- sub BEGIN {
+ BEGIN {
my $secret_val = 0;
sub gimme_another {
return ++$secret_val;
}
}
-See L<perlmod/"Package Constructors and Destructors"> about the
-special triggered functions, C<BEGIN>, C<CHECK>, C<INIT> and C<END>.
+See L<perlmod/"BEGIN, CHECK, INIT and END"> about the
+special triggered code blocks, C<BEGIN>, C<CHECK>, C<INIT> and C<END>.
If declared at the outermost scope (the file scope), then lexicals
work somewhat like C's file statics. They are available to all
to create private variables that the whole module can see.
=head2 Temporary Values via local()
+X<local> X<scope, dynamic> X<dynamic scope> X<variable, local>
+X<variable, temporary>
B<WARNING>: In general, you should be using C<my> instead of C<local>, because
it's faster and safer. Exceptions to this include the global punctuation
-variables, filehandles and formats, and direct manipulation of the Perl
-symbol table itself. Format variables often use C<local> though, as do
-other variables whose current value must be visible to called
-subroutines.
+variables, global filehandles and formats, and direct manipulation of the
+Perl symbol table itself. C<local> is mostly used when the current value
+of a variable must be visible to called subroutines.
Synopsis:
- local $foo; # declare $foo dynamically local
- local (@wid, %get); # declare list of variables local
- local $foo = "flurp"; # declare $foo dynamic, and init it
- local @oof = @bar; # declare @oof dynamic, and init it
+ # localization of values
+
+ local $foo; # make $foo dynamically local
+ local (@wid, %get); # make list of variables local
+ local $foo = "flurp"; # make $foo dynamic, and init it
+ local @oof = @bar; # make @oof dynamic, and init it
+
+ local $hash{key} = "val"; # sets a local value for this hash entry
+ local ($cond ? $v1 : $v2); # several types of lvalues support
+ # localization
+
+ # localization of symbols
local *FH; # localize $FH, @FH, %FH, &FH ...
local *merlyn = *randal; # now $merlyn is really $randal, plus
a local variable. This is known as dynamic scoping. Lexical scoping
is done with C<my>, which works more like C's auto declarations.
-If more than one variable is given to C<local>, they must be placed in
-parentheses. All listed elements must be legal lvalues. This operator works
+Some types of lvalues can be localized as well : hash and array elements
+and slices, conditionals (provided that their result is always
+localizable), and symbolic references. As for simple variables, this
+creates new, dynamically scoped values.
+
+If more than one variable or expression is given to C<local>, they must be
+placed in parentheses. This operator works
by saving the current values of those variables in its argument list on a
hidden stack and restoring them upon exiting the block, subroutine, or
eval. This means that called subroutines can also reference the local
variable, but not the global one. The argument list may be assigned to if
desired, which allows you to initialize your local variables. (If no
initializer is given for a particular variable, it is created with an
-undefined value.) Commonly this is used to name the parameters to a
-subroutine. Examples:
-
- for $i ( 0 .. 9 ) {
- $digits{$i} = $i;
- }
- # assume this function uses global %digits hash
- parse_num();
-
- # now temporarily add to %digits hash
- if ($base12) {
- # (NOTE: not claiming this is efficient!)
- local %digits = (%digits, 't' => 10, 'e' => 11);
- parse_num(); # parse_num gets this new %digits!
- }
- # old %digits restored here
+undefined value.)
Because C<local> is a run-time operator, it gets executed each time
-through a loop. In releases of Perl previous to 5.0, this used more stack
-storage each time until the loop was exited. Perl now reclaims the space
-each time through, but it's still more efficient to declare your variables
-outside the loop.
+through a loop. Consequently, it's more efficient to localize your
+variables outside the loop.
+
+=head3 Grammatical note on local()
+X<local, context>
A C<local> is simply a modifier on an lvalue expression. When you assign to
a C<local>ized variable, the C<local> doesn't change whether its list is viewed
supplies a scalar context.
-A note about C<local()> and composite types is in order. Something
-like C<local(%foo)> works by temporarily placing a brand new hash in
-the symbol table. The old hash is left alone, but is hidden "behind"
-the new one.
+=head3 Localization of special variables
+X<local, special variable>
-This means the old variable is completely invisible via the symbol
-table (i.e. the hash entry in the C<*foo> typeglob) for the duration
-of the dynamic scope within which the C<local()> was seen. This
-has the effect of allowing one to temporarily occlude any magic on
-composite types. For instance, this will briefly alter a tied
-hash to some other implementation:
+If you localize a special variable, you'll be giving a new value to it,
+but its magic won't go away. That means that all side-effects related
+to this magic still work with the localized value.
- tie %ahash, 'APackage';
- [...]
- {
- local %ahash;
- tie %ahash, 'BPackage';
- [..called code will see %ahash tied to 'BPackage'..]
- {
- local %ahash;
- [..%ahash is a normal (untied) hash here..]
- }
- }
- [..%ahash back to its initial tied self again..]
+This feature allows code like this to work :
-As another example, a custom implementation of C<%ENV> might look
-like this:
+ # Read the whole contents of FILE in $slurp
+ { local $/ = undef; $slurp = <FILE>; }
- {
- local %ENV;
- tie %ENV, 'MyOwnEnv';
- [..do your own fancy %ENV manipulation here..]
+Note, however, that this restricts localization of some values ; for
+example, the following statement dies, as of perl 5.9.0, with an error
+I<Modification of a read-only value attempted>, because the $1 variable is
+magical and read-only :
+
+ local $1 = 2;
+
+Similarly, but in a way more difficult to spot, the following snippet will
+die in perl 5.9.0 :
+
+ sub f { local $_ = "foo"; print }
+ for ($1) {
+ # now $_ is aliased to $1, thus is magic and readonly
+ f();
}
- [..normal %ENV behavior here..]
+
+See next section for an alternative to this situation.
+
+B<WARNING>: Localization of tied arrays and hashes does not currently
+work as described.
+This will be fixed in a future release of Perl; in the meantime, avoid
+code that relies on any particular behaviour of localising tied arrays
+or hashes (localising individual elements is still okay).
+See L<perl58delta/"Localising Tied Arrays and Hashes Is Broken"> for more
+details.
+X<local, tie>
+
+=head3 Localization of globs
+X<local, glob> X<glob>
+
+The construct
+
+ local *name;
+
+creates a whole new symbol table entry for the glob C<name> in the
+current package. That means that all variables in its glob slot ($name,
+@name, %name, &name, and the C<name> filehandle) are dynamically reset.
+
+This implies, among other things, that any magic eventually carried by
+those variables is locally lost. In other words, saying C<local */>
+will not have any effect on the internal value of the input record
+separator.
+
+Notably, if you want to work with a brand new value of the default scalar
+$_, and avoid the potential problem listed above about $_ previously
+carrying a magic value, you should use C<local *_> instead of C<local $_>.
+As of perl 5.9.1, you can also use the lexical form of C<$_> (declaring it
+with C<my $_>), which avoids completely this problem.
+
+=head3 Localization of elements of composite types
+X<local, composite type element> X<local, array element> X<local, hash element>
It's also worth taking a moment to explain what happens when you
C<local>ize a member of a composite type (i.e. an array or hash element).
types is subject to change in future.
=head2 Lvalue subroutines
+X<lvalue> X<subroutine, lvalue>
-B<WARNING>: Lvalue subroutines are still experimental and the implementation
-may change in future versions of Perl.
+B<WARNING>: Lvalue subroutines are still experimental and the
+implementation may change in future versions of Perl.
It is possible to return a modifiable value from a subroutine.
To do this, you have to declare the subroutine to return an lvalue.
my $val;
sub canmod : lvalue {
+ # return $val; this doesn't work, don't say "return"
$val;
}
sub nomod {
all the subroutines are called in a list context.
+=over 4
+
+=item Lvalue subroutines are EXPERIMENTAL
+
+They appear to be convenient, but there are several reasons to be
+circumspect.
+
+You can't use the return keyword, you must pass out the value before
+falling out of subroutine scope. (see comment in example above). This
+is usually not a problem, but it disallows an explicit return out of a
+deeply nested loop, which is sometimes a nice way out.
+
+They violate encapsulation. A normal mutator can check the supplied
+argument before setting the attribute it is protecting, an lvalue
+subroutine never gets that chance. Consider;
+
+ my $some_array_ref = []; # protected by mutators ??
+
+ sub set_arr { # normal mutator
+ my $val = shift;
+ die("expected array, you supplied ", ref $val)
+ unless ref $val eq 'ARRAY';
+ $some_array_ref = $val;
+ }
+ sub set_arr_lv : lvalue { # lvalue mutator
+ $some_array_ref;
+ }
+
+ # set_arr_lv cannot stop this !
+ set_arr_lv() = { a => 1 };
+
+=back
+
=head2 Passing Symbol Table Entries (typeglobs)
+X<typeglob> X<*>
B<WARNING>: The mechanism described in this section was originally
the only way to simulate pass-by-reference in older versions of
L<perldata/"Typeglobs and Filehandles">.
=head2 When to Still Use local()
+X<local> X<variable, local>
Despite the existence of C<my>, there are still three places where the
C<local> operator still shines. In fact, in these three places, you
=back
=head2 Pass by Reference
+X<pass by reference> X<pass-by-reference> X<reference>
If you want to pass more than one array or hash into a function--or
return them from it--and have them maintain their integrity, then
}
=head2 Prototypes
+X<prototype> X<subroutine, prototype>
Perl supports a very limited kind of compile-time argument checking
using function prototyping. If you declare
sub myopen (*;$) myopen HANDLE, $name
sub mypipe (**) mypipe READHANDLE, WRITEHANDLE
sub mygrep (&@) mygrep { /foo/ } $a, $b, $c
- sub myrand ($) myrand 42
+ sub myrand (;$) myrand 42
sub mytime () mytime
Any backslashed prototype character represents an actual argument
...
}
-A semicolon separates mandatory arguments from optional arguments.
+A semicolon (C<;>) separates mandatory arguments from optional arguments.
It is redundant before C<@> or C<%>, which gobble up everything else.
+As the last character of a prototype, you can use C<_> in place of C<$>:
+if this argument is not provided, C<$_> will be used instead.
+
Note how the last three examples in the table above are treated
specially by the parser. C<mygrep()> is parsed as a true list
operator, C<myrand()> is parsed as a true unary operator with unary
The interesting thing about C<&> is that you can generate new syntax with it,
provided it's in the initial position:
+X<&>
sub try (&@) {
my($try,$catch) = @_;
is this sounding a little Lispish? (Never mind.))))
And here's a reimplementation of the Perl C<grep> operator:
+X<grep>
sub mygrep (&@) {
my $code = shift;
to make the world a better place.
=head2 Constant Functions
+X<constant>
Functions with a prototype of C<()> are potential candidates for
inlining. If the result after optimization and constant folding
sub FLAG_MASK () { FLAG_FOO | FLAG_BAR }
sub OPT_BAZ () { not (0x1B58 & FLAG_MASK) }
- sub BAZ_VAL () {
+
+ sub N () { int(OPT_BAZ) / 3 }
+
+ sub FOO_SET () { 1 if FLAG_MASK & FLAG_FOO }
+
+Be aware that these will not be inlined; as they contain inner scopes,
+the constant folding doesn't reduce them to a single constant:
+
+ sub foo_set () { if (FLAG_MASK & FLAG_FOO) { 1 } }
+
+ sub baz_val () {
if (OPT_BAZ) {
return 23;
}
}
}
- sub N () { int(BAZ_VAL) / 3 }
- BEGIN {
- my $prod = 1;
- for (1..N) { $prod *= $_ }
- sub N_FACTORIAL () { $prod }
- }
-
If you redefine a subroutine that was eligible for inlining, you'll get
a mandatory warning. (You can use this warning to tell whether or not a
particular subroutine is considered constant.) The warning is
}
=head2 Overriding Built-in Functions
+X<built-in> X<override> X<CORE> X<CORE::GLOBAL>
Many built-in functions may be overridden, though this should be tried
only occasionally and for good reason. Typically this might be
done by a package attempting to emulate missing built-in functionality
on a non-Unix system.
-Overriding may be done only by importing the name from a
-module--ordinary predeclaration isn't good enough. However, the
+Overriding may be done only by importing the name from a module at
+compile time--ordinary predeclaration isn't good enough. However, the
C<use subs> pragma lets you, in effect, predeclare subs
via the import syntax, and these names may then override built-in ones:
the argument C<"Foo/Bar.pm"> in @_. See L<perlfunc/require>.
And, as you'll have noticed from the previous example, if you override
-C<glob>, the C<E<lt>*E<gt>> glob operator is overridden as well.
+C<glob>, the C<< <*> >> glob operator is overridden as well.
In a similar fashion, overriding the C<readline> function also overrides
the equivalent I/O operator C<< <FILEHANDLE> >>.
Finally, some built-ins (e.g. C<exists> or C<grep>) can't be overridden.
=head2 Autoloading
+X<autoloading> X<AUTOLOAD>
If you call a subroutine that is undefined, you would ordinarily
get an immediate, fatal error complaining that the subroutine doesn't
of the original subroutine magically appears in the global $AUTOLOAD
variable of the same package as the C<AUTOLOAD> routine. The name
is not passed as an ordinary argument because, er, well, just
-because, that's why...
+because, that's why. (As an exception, a method call to a nonexistent
+C<import> or C<unimport> method is just skipped instead.)
Many C<AUTOLOAD> routines load in a definition for the requested
subroutine using eval(), then execute that subroutine using a special
use subs qw(date who ls);
date;
who "am", "i";
- ls -l;
+ ls '-l';
A more complete example of this is the standard Shell module, which
can treat undefined subroutine calls as calls to external programs.
functions to Perl code in L<perlxs>.
=head2 Subroutine Attributes
+X<attribute> X<subroutine, attribute> X<attrs>
A subroutine declaration or definition may have a list of attributes
associated with it. If such an attribute list is present, it is
Examples of valid syntax (even though the attributes are unknown):
- sub fnord (&\%) : switch(10,foo(7,3)) : expensive ;
- sub plugh () : Ugly('\(") :Bad ;
+ sub fnord (&\%) : switch(10,foo(7,3)) : expensive;
+ sub plugh () : Ugly('\(") :Bad;
sub xyzzy : _5x5 { ... }
Examples of invalid syntax:
- sub fnord : switch(10,foo() ; # ()-string not balanced
- sub snoid : Ugly('(') ; # ()-string not balanced
- sub xyzzy : 5x5 ; # "5x5" not a valid identifier
- sub plugh : Y2::north ; # "Y2::north" not a simple identifier
- sub snurt : foo + bar ; # "+" not a colon or space
+ sub fnord : switch(10,foo(); # ()-string not balanced
+ sub snoid : Ugly('('); # ()-string not balanced
+ sub xyzzy : 5x5; # "5x5" not a valid identifier
+ sub plugh : Y2::north; # "Y2::north" not a simple identifier
+ sub snurt : foo + bar; # "+" not a colon or space
The attribute list is passed as a list of constant strings to the code
which associates them with the subroutine. In particular, the second example
use attributes __PACKAGE__, \&plugh, q[Ugly('\(")], 'Bad';
For further details on attribute lists and their manipulation,
-see L<attributes>.
+see L<attributes> and L<Attribute::Handlers>.
=head1 SEE ALSO
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff