perlmodlib

(source, CPAN)

You are viewing the version of this documentation from Perl 5.24.3. View the latest version

NAME
THE PERL MODULE LIBRARY
CPAN
- Africa
- Asia
- Central America
- Europe
- North America
- Oceania
- South America
- RSYNC Mirrors
Modules: Creation, Use, and Abuse
NOTE

#NAME

perlmodlib - constructing new Perl modules and finding existing ones

#THE PERL MODULE LIBRARY

Many modules are included in the Perl distribution. These are described below, and all end in .pm. You may discover compiled library files (usually ending in .so) or small pieces of modules to be autoloaded (ending in .al); these were automatically generated by the installation process. You may also discover files in the library directory that end in either .pl or .ph. These are old libraries supplied so that old programs that use them still run. The .pl files will all eventually be converted into standard modules, and the .ph files made by h2ph will probably end up as extension modules made by h2xs. (Some .ph values may already be available through the POSIX, Errno, or Fcntl modules.) The pl2pm file in the distribution may help in your conversion, but it's just a mechanical process and therefore far from bulletproof.

#Pragmatic Modules

They work somewhat like compiler directives (pragmata) in that they tend to affect the compilation of your program, and thus will usually work well only when used within a use, or no. Most of these are lexically scoped, so an inner BLOCK may countermand them by saying:

no integer;
no strict 'refs';
no warnings;

which lasts until the end of that BLOCK.

Some pragmas are lexically scoped--typically those that affect the $^H hints variable. Others affect the current package instead, like use vars and use subs, which allow you to predeclare a variables or subroutines within a particular file rather than just a block. Such declarations are effective for the entire file for which they were declared. You cannot rescind them with no vars or no subs.

The following pragmas are defined (and have their own documentation).

#arybase: Set indexing base via $[
#attributes: Get/set subroutine or variable attributes
#autodie: Replace functions with ones that succeed or die with lexical scope
#autodie::exception: Exceptions from autodying functions.
#autodie::exception::system: Exceptions from autodying system().
#autodie::hints: Provide hints about user subroutines to autodie
#autodie::skip: Skip a package when throwing autodie exceptions
#autouse: Postpone load of modules until a function is used
#base: Establish an ISA relationship with base classes at compile time
#bigint: Transparent BigInteger support for Perl
#bignum: Transparent BigNumber support for Perl
#bigrat: Transparent BigNumber/BigRational support for Perl
#blib: Use MakeMaker's uninstalled version of a package
#bytes: Expose the individual bytes of characters
#charnames: Access to Unicode character names and named character sequences; also define character names
#constant: Declare constants
#deprecate: Perl pragma for deprecating the core version of a module
#diagnostics: Produce verbose warning diagnostics
#encoding: Allows you to write your script in non-ASCII and non-UTF-8
#encoding::warnings: Warn on implicit encoding conversions
#experimental: Experimental features made easy
#feature: Enable new features
#fields: Compile-time class fields
#filetest: Control the filetest permission operators
#if: use a Perl module if a condition holds (also can no a module)
#integer: Use integer arithmetic instead of floating point
#less: Request less of something
#lib: Manipulate @INC at compile time
#locale: Use or avoid POSIX locales for built-in operations
#mro: Method Resolution Order
#ok: Alternative to Test::More::use_ok
#open: Set default PerlIO layers for input and output
#ops: Restrict unsafe operations when compiling
#overload: Package for overloading Perl operations
#overloading: Lexically control overloading
#parent: Establish an ISA relationship with base classes at compile time
#re: Alter regular expression behaviour
#sigtrap: Enable simple signal handling
#sort: Control sort() behaviour
#strict: Restrict unsafe constructs
#subs: Predeclare sub names
#threads: Perl interpreter-based threads
#threads::shared: Perl extension for sharing data structures between threads
#utf8: Enable/disable UTF-8 (or UTF-EBCDIC) in source code
#vars: Predeclare global variable names
#version: Perl extension for Version Objects
#vmsish: Control VMS-specific language features
#warnings::register: Warnings import function

#Standard Modules

Standard, bundled modules are all expected to behave in a well-defined manner with respect to namespace pollution because they use the Exporter module. See their own documentation for details.

It's possible that not all modules listed below are installed on your system. For example, the GDBM_File module will not be installed if you don't have the gdbm library.

#Amiga::ARexx

Perl extension for ARexx support

#Amiga::Exec

Perl extension for low level amiga support

#AnyDBM_File

Provide framework for multiple DBMs

#App::Cpan

Easily interact with CPAN from the command line

#App::Prove

Implements the prove command.

#App::Prove::State

State storage for the prove command.

#App::Prove::State::Result

Individual test suite results.

#App::Prove::State::Result::Test

Individual test results.

#Archive::Tar

Module for manipulations of tar archives

#Archive::Tar::File

A subclass for in-memory extracted file from Archive::Tar

#Attribute::Handlers

Simpler definition of attribute handlers

#AutoLoader

Load subroutines only on demand

#AutoSplit

Split a package for autoloading

#B

The Perl Compiler Backend

#B::Concise

Walk Perl syntax tree, printing concise info about ops

#B::Debug

Walk Perl syntax tree, printing debug info about ops

#B::Deparse

Perl compiler backend to produce perl code

#B::Op_private

OP op_private flag definitions

#B::Showlex

Show lexical variables used in functions or files

#B::Terse

Walk Perl syntax tree, printing terse info about ops

#B::Xref

Generates cross reference reports for Perl programs

#Benchmark

Benchmark running times of Perl code

#IO::Socket::IP

Family-neutral IP socket supporting both IPv4 and IPv6

#Socket

Networking constants and support functions

#CORE

Namespace for Perl's core routines

#CPAN

Query, download and build perl modules from CPAN sites

#CPAN::API::HOWTO

A recipe book for programming with CPAN.pm

#CPAN::Debug

Internal debugging for CPAN.pm

#CPAN::Distroprefs

Read and match distroprefs

#CPAN::FirstTime

Utility for CPAN::Config file Initialization

#CPAN::HandleConfig

Internal configuration handling for CPAN.pm

#CPAN::Kwalify

Interface between CPAN.pm and Kwalify.pm

#CPAN::Meta

The distribution metadata for a CPAN dist

#CPAN::Meta::Converter

Convert CPAN distribution metadata structures

#CPAN::Meta::Feature

An optional feature provided by a CPAN distribution

#CPAN::Meta::History

History of CPAN Meta Spec changes

#CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_0

Version 1.0 metadata specification for META.yml

#CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_1

Version 1.1 metadata specification for META.yml

#CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_2

Version 1.2 metadata specification for META.yml

#CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_3

Version 1.3 metadata specification for META.yml

#CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_4

Version 1.4 metadata specification for META.yml

#CPAN::Meta::Merge

Merging CPAN Meta fragments

#CPAN::Meta::Prereqs

A set of distribution prerequisites by phase and type

#CPAN::Meta::Requirements

A set of version requirements for a CPAN dist

#CPAN::Meta::Spec

Specification for CPAN distribution metadata

#CPAN::Meta::Validator

Validate CPAN distribution metadata structures

#CPAN::Meta::YAML

Read and write a subset of YAML for CPAN Meta files

#CPAN::Nox

Wrapper around CPAN.pm without using any XS module

#CPAN::Plugin

Base class for CPAN shell extensions

#CPAN::Plugin::Specfile

Proof of concept implementation of a trivial CPAN::Plugin

#CPAN::Queue

Internal queue support for CPAN.pm

#CPAN::Tarzip

Internal handling of tar archives for CPAN.pm

#CPAN::Version

Utility functions to compare CPAN versions

#Carp

Alternative warn and die for modules

#Class::Struct

Declare struct-like datatypes as Perl classes

#Compress::Raw::Bzip2

Low-Level Interface to bzip2 compression library

#Compress::Raw::Zlib

Low-Level Interface to zlib compression library

#Compress::Zlib

Interface to zlib compression library

#Config

Access Perl configuration information

#Config::Perl::V

Structured data retrieval of perl -V output

#Cwd

Get pathname of current working directory

#DB

Programmatic interface to the Perl debugging API

#DBM_Filter

Filter DBM keys/values

#DBM_Filter::compress

Filter for DBM_Filter

#DBM_Filter::encode

Filter for DBM_Filter

#DBM_Filter::int32

Filter for DBM_Filter

#DBM_Filter::null

Filter for DBM_Filter

#DBM_Filter::utf8

Filter for DBM_Filter

#DB_File

Perl5 access to Berkeley DB version 1.x

#Data::Dumper

Stringified perl data structures, suitable for both printing and eval

#Devel::PPPort

Perl/Pollution/Portability

#Devel::Peek

A data debugging tool for the XS programmer

#Devel::SelfStubber

Generate stubs for a SelfLoading module

#Digest

Modules that calculate message digests

#Digest::MD5

Perl interface to the MD5 Algorithm

#Digest::SHA

Perl extension for SHA-1/224/256/384/512

#Digest::base

Digest base class

#Digest::file

Calculate digests of files

#DirHandle

Supply object methods for directory handles

#Dumpvalue

Provides screen dump of Perl data.

#DynaLoader

Dynamically load C libraries into Perl code

#Encode

Character encodings in Perl

#Encode::Alias

Alias definitions to encodings

#Encode::Byte

Single Byte Encodings

#Encode::CJKConstants

Internally used by Encode::??::ISO_2022_*

#Encode::CN

China-based Chinese Encodings

#Encode::CN::HZ

Internally used by Encode::CN

#Encode::Config

Internally used by Encode

#Encode::EBCDIC

EBCDIC Encodings

#Encode::Encoder

Object Oriented Encoder

#Encode::Encoding

Encode Implementation Base Class

#Encode::GSM0338

ESTI GSM 03.38 Encoding

#Encode::Guess

Guesses encoding from data

#Encode::JP

Japanese Encodings

#Encode::JP::H2Z

Internally used by Encode::JP::2022_JP*

#Encode::JP::JIS7

Internally used by Encode::JP

#Encode::KR

Korean Encodings

#Encode::KR::2022_KR

Internally used by Encode::KR

#Encode::MIME::Header

MIME 'B' and 'Q' header encoding

#Encode::MIME::Name

Internally used by Encode

#Encode::PerlIO

A detailed document on Encode and PerlIO

#Encode::Supported

Encodings supported by Encode

#Encode::Symbol

Symbol Encodings

#Encode::TW

Taiwan-based Chinese Encodings

#Encode::Unicode

Various Unicode Transformation Formats

#Encode::Unicode::UTF7

UTF-7 encoding

#English

Use nice English (or awk) names for ugly punctuation variables

#Env

Perl module that imports environment variables as scalars or arrays

#Errno

System errno constants

#Exporter

Implements default import method for modules

#Exporter::Heavy

Exporter guts

#ExtUtils::CBuilder

Compile and link C code for Perl modules

#ExtUtils::CBuilder::Platform::Windows

Builder class for Windows platforms

#ExtUtils::Command

Utilities to replace common UNIX commands in Makefiles etc.

#ExtUtils::Command::MM

Commands for the MM's to use in Makefiles

#ExtUtils::Constant

Generate XS code to import C header constants

#ExtUtils::Constant::Base

Base class for ExtUtils::Constant objects

#ExtUtils::Constant::Utils

Helper functions for ExtUtils::Constant

#ExtUtils::Constant::XS

Generate C code for XS modules' constants.

#ExtUtils::Embed

Utilities for embedding Perl in C/C++ applications

#ExtUtils::Install

Install files from here to there

#ExtUtils::Installed

Inventory management of installed modules

#ExtUtils::Liblist

Determine libraries to use and how to use them

#ExtUtils::MM

OS adjusted ExtUtils::MakeMaker subclass

#ExtUtils::MM_AIX

AIX specific subclass of ExtUtils::MM_Unix

#ExtUtils::MM_Any

Platform-agnostic MM methods

#ExtUtils::MM_BeOS

Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

#ExtUtils::MM_Cygwin

Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

#ExtUtils::MM_DOS

DOS specific subclass of ExtUtils::MM_Unix

#ExtUtils::MM_Darwin

Special behaviors for OS X

#ExtUtils::MM_MacOS

Once produced Makefiles for MacOS Classic

#ExtUtils::MM_NW5

Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

#ExtUtils::MM_OS2

Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

#ExtUtils::MM_QNX

QNX specific subclass of ExtUtils::MM_Unix

#ExtUtils::MM_UWIN

U/WIN specific subclass of ExtUtils::MM_Unix

#ExtUtils::MM_Unix

Methods used by ExtUtils::MakeMaker

#ExtUtils::MM_VMS

Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

#ExtUtils::MM_VOS

VOS specific subclass of ExtUtils::MM_Unix

#ExtUtils::MM_Win32

Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

#ExtUtils::MM_Win95

Method to customize MakeMaker for Win9X

#ExtUtils::MY

ExtUtils::MakeMaker subclass for customization

#ExtUtils::MakeMaker

Create a module Makefile

#ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Config

Wrapper around Config.pm

#ExtUtils::MakeMaker::FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions About MakeMaker

#ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Locale

Bundled Encode::Locale

#ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Tutorial

Writing a module with MakeMaker

#ExtUtils::Manifest

Utilities to write and check a MANIFEST file

#ExtUtils::Miniperl

Write the C code for perlmain.c

#ExtUtils::Mkbootstrap

Make a bootstrap file for use by DynaLoader

#ExtUtils::Mksymlists

Write linker options files for dynamic extension

#ExtUtils::Packlist

Manage .packlist files

#ExtUtils::ParseXS

Converts Perl XS code into C code

#ExtUtils::ParseXS::Constants

Initialization values for some globals

#ExtUtils::ParseXS::Eval

Clean package to evaluate code in

#ExtUtils::ParseXS::Utilities

Subroutines used with ExtUtils::ParseXS

#ExtUtils::Typemaps

Read/Write/Modify Perl/XS typemap files

#ExtUtils::Typemaps::Cmd

Quick commands for handling typemaps

#ExtUtils::Typemaps::InputMap

Entry in the INPUT section of a typemap

#ExtUtils::Typemaps::OutputMap

Entry in the OUTPUT section of a typemap

#ExtUtils::Typemaps::Type

Entry in the TYPEMAP section of a typemap

#ExtUtils::XSSymSet

Keep sets of symbol names palatable to the VMS linker

#ExtUtils::testlib

Add blib/* directories to @INC

#Fatal

Replace functions with equivalents which succeed or die

#Fcntl

Load the C Fcntl.h defines

#File::Basename

Parse file paths into directory, filename and suffix.

#File::Compare

Compare files or filehandles

#File::Copy

Copy files or filehandles

#File::DosGlob

DOS like globbing and then some

#File::Fetch

A generic file fetching mechanism

#File::Find

Traverse a directory tree.

#File::Glob

Perl extension for BSD glob routine

#File::GlobMapper

Extend File Glob to Allow Input and Output Files

#File::Path

Create or remove directory trees

#File::Spec

Portably perform operations on file names

#File::Spec::AmigaOS

File::Spec for AmigaOS

#File::Spec::Cygwin

Methods for Cygwin file specs

#File::Spec::Epoc

Methods for Epoc file specs

#File::Spec::Functions

Portably perform operations on file names

#File::Spec::Mac

File::Spec for Mac OS (Classic)

#File::Spec::OS2

Methods for OS/2 file specs

#File::Spec::Unix

File::Spec for Unix, base for other File::Spec modules

#File::Spec::VMS

Methods for VMS file specs

#File::Spec::Win32

Methods for Win32 file specs

#File::Temp

Return name and handle of a temporary file safely

#File::stat

By-name interface to Perl's built-in stat() functions

#FileCache

Keep more files open than the system permits

#FileHandle

Supply object methods for filehandles

#Filter::Simple

Simplified source filtering

#Filter::Util::Call

Perl Source Filter Utility Module

#FindBin

Locate directory of original perl script

#GDBM_File

Perl5 access to the gdbm library.

#Getopt::Long

Extended processing of command line options

#Getopt::Std

Process single-character switches with switch clustering

#HTTP::Tiny

A small, simple, correct HTTP/1.1 client

#Hash::Util

A selection of general-utility hash subroutines

#Hash::Util::FieldHash

Support for Inside-Out Classes

#I18N::Collate

Compare 8-bit scalar data according to the current locale

#I18N::LangTags

Functions for dealing with RFC3066-style language tags

#I18N::LangTags::Detect

Detect the user's language preferences

#I18N::LangTags::List

Tags and names for human languages

#I18N::Langinfo

Query locale information

#IO

Load various IO modules

#IO::Compress::Base

Base Class for IO::Compress modules

#IO::Compress::Bzip2

Write bzip2 files/buffers

#IO::Compress::Deflate

Write RFC 1950 files/buffers

#IO::Compress::FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about IO::Compress

#IO::Compress::Gzip

Write RFC 1952 files/buffers

#IO::Compress::RawDeflate

Write RFC 1951 files/buffers

#IO::Compress::Zip

Write zip files/buffers

#IO::Dir

Supply object methods for directory handles

#IO::File

Supply object methods for filehandles

#IO::Handle

Supply object methods for I/O handles

#IO::Pipe

Supply object methods for pipes

#IO::Poll

Object interface to system poll call

#IO::Seekable

Supply seek based methods for I/O objects

#IO::Select

OO interface to the select system call

#IO::Socket

Object interface to socket communications

#IO::Socket::INET

Object interface for AF_INET domain sockets

#IO::Socket::UNIX

Object interface for AF_UNIX domain sockets

#IO::Uncompress::AnyInflate

Uncompress zlib-based (zip, gzip) file/buffer

#IO::Uncompress::AnyUncompress

Uncompress gzip, zip, bzip2 or lzop file/buffer

#IO::Uncompress::Base

Base Class for IO::Uncompress modules

#IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2

Read bzip2 files/buffers

#IO::Uncompress::Gunzip

Read RFC 1952 files/buffers

#IO::Uncompress::Inflate

Read RFC 1950 files/buffers

#IO::Uncompress::RawInflate

Read RFC 1951 files/buffers

#IO::Uncompress::Unzip

Read zip files/buffers

#IO::Zlib

IO:: style interface to Compress::Zlib

#IPC::Cmd

Finding and running system commands made easy

#IPC::Msg

SysV Msg IPC object class

#IPC::Open2

Open a process for both reading and writing using open2()

#IPC::Open3

Open a process for reading, writing, and error handling using open3()

#IPC::Semaphore

SysV Semaphore IPC object class

#IPC::SharedMem

SysV Shared Memory IPC object class

#IPC::SysV

System V IPC constants and system calls

#JSON::PP

JSON::XS compatible pure-Perl module.

#JSON::PP::Boolean

Dummy module providing JSON::PP::Boolean

#List::Util

A selection of general-utility list subroutines

#List::Util::XS

Indicate if List::Util was compiled with a C compiler

#Locale::Codes

A distribution of modules to handle locale codes

#Locale::Codes::API

A description of the callable function in each module

#Locale::Codes::Changes

Details changes to Locale::Codes

#Locale::Codes::Country

Standard codes for country identification

#Locale::Codes::Currency

Standard codes for currency identification

#Locale::Codes::LangExt

Standard codes for language extension identification

#Locale::Codes::LangFam

Standard codes for language extension identification

#Locale::Codes::LangVar

Standard codes for language variation identification

#Locale::Codes::Language

Standard codes for language identification

#Locale::Codes::Script

Standard codes for script identification

CONTENTS

#NAME

#THE PERL MODULE LIBRARY

#Pragmatic Modules

#Standard Modules