"require" doesn't work where "use" works - perl

The My_Module-module (used in this package) uses Signals::XSIG and sets $XSIG{'WINCH'}[1] = sub { ... };
use warnings;
use 5.014;
package Auto_sid;
use Exporter 'import';
our #EXPORT = qw(something);
use My_Module;
no warnings qw(redefine);
sub My_Module::list_to_big {
my ( #arguments ) = #_;
require Signals::XSIG;
Signals::XSIG->import(%Signals::XSIG::XSIG);
#{$Signals::XSIG::XSIG{'WINCH'}} = ();
no Signals::XSIG;
# ...
# do something that My_Module normaly doesn't do and
# which doesn't work when modified $SIG{'WINCH'}
# ...
}
When I use this I get a lot of error-messages like:
"NUM63" is not exported by the Signals::XSIG module
"ARRAY(0xc23180)" is not exported by the Signals::XSIG module
"TRAP" is not exported by the Signals::XSIG module
"ARRAY(0xc119c8)" is not exported by the Signals::XSIG module
...
When I use use instead of require it works fine.
Why does this not work with require?

Because when you do this:
Signals::XSIG->import(%Signals::XSIG::XSIG);
you're passing the contents of that hash to the import routine. As NUM63 and TRAP are signal names, and they are not valid exports for Signals::XSIG, you're getting those errors.
You need to do this:
Signals::XSIG->import('%XSIG');
Because it recognizes Exporter recognizes the string '%XSIG' as one of the things it does export.

use Signals::XSIG qw( %XSIG );
is equivalent to
BEGIN {
require Signals::XSIG;
Signals::XSIG->import(qw( %XSIG ));
}
instead of
# Passes the string '%XSIG'
Signals::XSIG->import(qw( %XSIG ));
you do
# Passes the contents of %Signals::XSIG::XSIG
Signals::XSIG->import(%Signals::XSIG::XSIG);
import is complaining about all the incorrect values you passed to it.
(You also got rid of the BEGIN, but that's unrelated to the errors you are currently getting.)

Related

Perl Import Package in different Namespace

is it possible to import (use) a perl module within a different namespace?
Let's say I have a Module A (XS Module with no methods Exported #EXPORT is empty) and I have no way of changing the module.
This Module has a Method A::open
currently I can use that Module in my main program (package main) by calling A::open I would like to have that module inside my package main so that I can directly call open
I tried to manually push every key of %A:: into %main:: however that did not work as expected.
The only way that I know to achieve what I want is by using package A; inside my main program, effectively changing the package of my program from main to A.
Im not satisfied with this. I would really like to keep my program inside package main.
Is there any way to achieve this and still keep my program in package main?
Offtopic: Yes I know usually you would not want to import everything into your namespace but this module is used by us extensively and we don't want to type A:: (well the actual module name is way longer which isn't making the situation better)in front of hundreds or thousands of calls
This is one of those "impossible" situations, where the clear solution -- to rework that module -- is off limits.
But, you can alias that package's subs names, from its symbol table, to the same names in main. Worse than being rude, this comes with a glitch: it catches all names that that package itself imported in any way. However, since this package is a fixed quantity it stands to reason that you can establish that list (and even hard-code it). It is just this one time, right?
main
use warnings;
use strict;
use feature 'say';
use OffLimits;
GET_SUBS: {
# The list of names to be excluded
my $re_exclude = qr/^(?:BEGIN|import)$/; # ...
my #subs = grep { !/$re_exclude/ } sort keys %OffLimits::;
no strict 'refs';
for my $sub_name (#subs) {
*{ $sub_name } = \&{ 'OffLimits::' . $sub_name };
}
};
my $name = name('name() called from ' . __PACKAGE__);
my $id = id('id() called from ' . __PACKAGE__);
say "name() returned: $name";
say "id() returned: $id";
with OffLimits.pm
package OffLimits;
use warnings;
use strict;
sub name { return "In " . __PACKAGE__ . ": #_" }
sub id { return "In " . __PACKAGE__ . ": #_" }
1;
It prints
name() returned: In OffLimits: name() called from main
id() returned: In OffLimits: id() called from main
You may need that code in a BEGIN block, depending on other details.
Another option is of course to hard-code the subs to be "exported" (in #subs). Given that the module seems to be immutable in practice this option is reasonable and more reliable.
This can also be wrapped in a module, so that you have the normal, selective, importing.
WrapOffLimits.pm
package WrapOffLimits;
use warnings;
use strict;
use OffLimits;
use Exporter qw(import);
our #sub_names;
our #EXPORT_OK = #sub_names;
our %EXPORT_TAGS = (all => \#sub_names);
BEGIN {
# Or supply a hard-coded list of all module's subs in #sub_names
my $re_exclude = qr/^(?:BEGIN|import)$/; # ...
#sub_names = grep { !/$re_exclude/ } sort keys %OffLimits::;
no strict 'refs';
for my $sub_name (#sub_names) {
*{ $sub_name } = \&{ 'OffLimits::' . $sub_name };
}
};
1;
and now in the caller you can import either only some subs
use WrapOffLimits qw(name);
or all
use WrapOffLimits qw(:all);
with otherwise the same main as above for a test.
The module name is hard-coded, which should be OK as this is meant only for that module.
The following is added mostly for completeness.
One can pass the module name to the wrapper by writing one's own import sub, which is what gets used then. The import list can be passed as well, at the expense of an awkward interface of the use statement.
It goes along the lines of
package WrapModule;
use warnings;
use strict;
use OffLimits;
use Exporter qw(); # will need our own import
our ($mod_name, #sub_names);
our #EXPORT_OK = #sub_names;
our %EXPORT_TAGS = (all => \#sub_names);
sub import {
my $mod_name = splice #_, 1, 1; # remove mod name from #_ for goto
my $re_exclude = qr/^(?:BEGIN|import)$/; # etc
no strict 'refs';
#sub_names = grep { !/$re_exclude/ } sort keys %{ $mod_name . '::'};
for my $sub_name (#sub_names) {
*{ $sub_name } = \&{ $mod_name . '::' . $sub_name };
}
push #EXPORT_OK, #sub_names;
goto &Exporter::import;
}
1;
what can be used as
use WrapModule qw(OffLimits name id); # or (OffLimits :all)
or, with the list broken-up so to remind the user of the unusual interface
use WrapModule 'OffLimits', qw(name id);
When used with the main above this prints the same output.
The use statement ends up using the import sub defined in the module, which exports symbols by writing to the caller's symbol table. (If no import sub is written then the Exporter's import method is nicely used, which is how this is normally done.)
This way we are able to unpack the arguments and have the module name supplied at use invocation. With the import list supplied as well now we have to push manually to #EXPORT_OK since this can't be in the BEGIN phase. In the end the sub is replaced by Exporter::import via the (good form of) goto, to complete the job.
You can forcibly "import" a function into main using glob assignment to alias the subroutine (and you want to do it in BEGIN so it happens at compile time, before calls to that subroutine are parsed later in the file):
use strict;
use warnings;
use Other::Module;
BEGIN { *open = \&Other::Module::open }
However, another problem you might have here is that open is a builtin function, which may cause some problems. You can add use subs 'open'; to indicate that you want to override the built-in function in this case, since you aren't using an actual import function to do so.
Here is what I now came up with. Yes this is hacky and yes I also feel like I opened pandoras box with this. However at least a small dummy program ran perfectly fine.
I renamed the module in my code again. In my original post I used the example A::open actually this module does not contain any method/variable reserved by the perl core. This is why I blindly import everything here.
BEGIN {
# using the caller to determine the parent. Usually this is main but maybe we want it somewhere else in some cases
my ($parent_package) = caller;
package A;
foreach (keys(%A::)) {
if (defined $$_) {
eval '*'.$parent_package.'::'.$_.' = \$A::'.$_;
}
elsif (%$_) {
eval '*'.$parent_package.'::'.$_.' = \%A::'.$_;
}
elsif (#$_) {
eval '*'.$parent_package.'::'.$_.' = \#A::'.$_;
}
else {
eval '*'.$parent_package.'::'.$_.' = \&A::'.$_;
}
}
}

perl use vs require and import, constants are only functions

I've got a Perl script that I'm trying to make compatible with two different Perl environments. To work around the two different versions of Socket I have, I'm doing a little hackery with require and import. I've got it working, but I'm not happy with the behavior.
Mod.pm:
package Mod;
use base 'Exporter';
our #EXPORT = qw( MAGIC_CONST );
sub MAGIC_CONST() { 42; }
test.pl:
use Mod;
#require Mod;
#import Mod;
printf "MAGIC_CONST = ". MAGIC_CONST ."\n";
printf "MAGIC_CONST = ". MAGIC_CONST() ."\n";
Outputs:
MAGIC_CONST = 42
MAGIC_CONST = 42
But using the 'require' and 'import' instead, I get this:
Output:
MAGIC_CONST = MAGIC_CONST
MAGIC_CONST = 42
So the question is: Is there a clean way I can get the normal behavior of the constants? I can certainly do sub MAGIC_CONST { Mod::MAGIC_CONST(); } but that's pretty ugly.
What I'm actually doing is something like this:
use Socket;
if ($Socket::VERSION > 1.96) {
import Socket qw(SO_KEEPALIVE); # among others
setsockopt($s, SOL_SOCKET, SO_KEEPALIVE); # among others
}
The reason the require version prints MAGIC_CONST instead of 42 is because use is what tells perl to import the symbols from one module to another. Without the use, there is no function called MAGIC_CONST defined, so perl interprets it as a string instead. You should use strict to disable the automatic conversion of barewords like that into strings.
#!/usr/bin/env perl
no strict;
# forgot to define constant MAGIC_CONST...
print 'Not strict:' . MAGIC_CONST . "\n";
produces
Not strict:MAGIC_CONST
But
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
# forgot to define constant MAGIC_CONST...
print 'Strict:' . MAGIC_CONST . "\n";
Produces an error:
Bareword "MAGIC_CONST" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at
./test.pl line 4. Execution of ./test.pl aborted due to compilation
errors.
So if you want to use one module's functions in another, you either have to import them with use, or call them with the full package name:
package Foo;
sub MAGIC_CONST { 42 };
package Bar;
print 'Foo from Bar: ' . Foo::MAGIC_CONST . "\n";
Foo from Bar: 42
It's usually best to avoid conditionally importing things. You could resolve your problem as follows:
use Socket;
if ($Socket::VERSION > 1.96) {
setsockopt($s, SOL_SOCKET, Socket::SO_KEEPALIVE);
}
If you truly want to import, you still need to do it at compile-time.
use Socket;
use constant qw( );
BEGIN {
if ($Socket::VERSION > 1.96) {
Socket->import(qw( SO_KEEPALIVE ));
} else {
constant->import({ SO_KEEPALIVE => undef });
}
}
setsockopt($s, SOL_SOCKET, SO_KEEPALIVE) if defined(SO_KEEPALIVE);
Adam's answer gives a good explanation of what is going on and how to get the desired behavior. I am going to recommend not using constant.pm to define symbolic names for constants. A fairly nice looking and convenient alternative with fewer gotchas is to use constants defined using Const::Fast and allow them to be imported.
In addition, by using Importer in the module which wants to import the constants, the module that defines the constants can avoid inheriting Exporter's heavy baggage, or having to use Exporter's import.
The fact that Const::Fast allows you to define real constant arrays and hashes is a bonus.
For example:
package MyConstants;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Const::Fast;
use Socket;
const our #EXPORT => ();
const our #EXPORT_OK => qw(
%SOCKET_OPT
);
const our %SOCKET_OPT => (
keep_alive => ($Socket::VERSION > 1.96) ? Socket::SO_KEEPALIVE : undef,
);
__PACKAGE__;
__END__
Using these constants in a script:
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Socket;
use Importer 'MyConstants' => qw( %SOCKET_OPT );
if ( defined $SOCKET_OPT{keep_alive} ) {
setsockopt($s, SOL_SOCKET, $SOCKET_OPT{keep_alive});
}
As I note in my blog post:
f I want to read the constants from a configuration file, that's trivial. If I want to export them to JSON, YAML, INI, or whatever else, that's also trivial. I can interpolate them willy-nilly.
For those who have taken seriously Exporter's stance against exporting variables, this takes some getting used to. Keep in mind that the admonition is there to make sure you don't write code that willy nilly modifies global variables. However, in this case, the variables we are exporting are not modifiable. Maybe you can convince yourself that the concern really does not apply in this instance. If you try to refer to a non-existent constant, you get an error (albeit during run time) ...
In most cases, the benefits of this approach outweigh the speed penalty of not using constant.pm.

How to dynamically avoid 'use module' to reduce memory footprint

Given the following module:
package My::Object;
use strict;
use warnings;
use My::Module::A;
use My::Module::B;
use My::Module::C;
use My::Module::D;
...
1;
I would like to be able to call My::Object in the next 2 scenarios:
Normal use
use My::Object;
My::Module->new();
Reduced memory use. Call the same object but with a condition or a flag telling the object to skip the use modules to reduce memory usage. Somehow like:
use My::Object -noUse;
My::Module->new();
If tried the Perl if condition without success.
The problem I'm having it's with big objects with a lot of uses, then only loading this object consumes a lot of RAM. I know I can refactor them but it will be wonderful if somehow I can avoid these uses when I'm sure none of them is used on the given scenario.
One solution will be to replace all uses with requires on all places when the modules are needed, but I don't see convenient when some of them are used in a lot of methods.
Any ideas?
Thanks
The native pragma autouse will load modules needed when plain subroutines are called:
use autouse 'My::Module::A' => qw(a_sub);
# ... later ...
a_sub "this will dynamically load My::Module::A";
For proper OO methods, Class::Autouse will load modules (classes) when methods are called:
use Class::Autouse;
Class::Autouse->autouse( 'My::Module::A' );
# ... later ...
print My::Module::A->a_method('this will dynamically load My::Module::A');
What I think you're looking for is perhaps require - require is evaluated later so you can use it successfully in a conditional:
if ( $somecondition ) {
require Some::Module;
}
Of course, you won't be able to do Some::Module->new() if you've not loaded it - there's just no way around that.
Where use is triggered at compile time (and thus will trigger warnings under perl -c if the module is unavailable) require happens are runtime. You should probably test if require was successful as a result.
e.g.:
if ( $somecondition ) {
eval { require Some::Module };
warn "Module Not loaded: ".$# if $#;
}
Otherwise you may be looking for:
Is it possible to pass parameters to a Perl module loading?
#!/usr/bin/perl
package MyObject;
sub import {
my ( $package, $msg ) = #_;
if ( defined $msg and $msg eq "NO_USE" ) {
#don't load module
}
else {
require XML::Twig;
}
}
1;
And then call:
use if $somecondition, MyObject => ( 'NO_USE' );
Or just simpler:
use MyObject qw( NO_USE );
Edit:
After a bit of fiddling with 'use' - there's a couple of gotchas, in that use if doesn't seem to like lexical variables. So you need to do something like:
#!/usr/bin/perl
package MyObject;
use strict;
use warnings;
our $import_stuff = 1;
sub import {
my ( $package, $msg ) = #_;
if ( $msg and $msg eq "NO_USE" ) {
$import_stuff = 0;
}
use if $import_stuff, 'Text::CSV';
}
1;
And call:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use MyObject qw( NO_USE );
use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper \%INC;
my $test = Text::CSV -> new();
(Which errors if you set NO_USE and doesn't otherwise).
I think that's an artifact of use being a compile time directive still, so requires a (package scoped) condition.

How to declare an array variable to be global in module scope

I have some code I decided to pull into a module in perl. I admit that I am doing a bit of monkey-see monkey-do stuff following documentation I've found online.
There is only one pubicly visible subroutine, which sets 2 variables * would like to use in other subroutines in the module, without passing them explicitly as parameters -- $fname, and #lines. Looking online I came up with the "our" keyword, but when I try to declare them at global level (see code snippet below), I get the following error:
mig_tools.pm did not return a true value at
I have worked around the issue by declaring "our $fname" and "our #lines" in every subroutine they are used, but I would prefer to declare them once at global scope. Is that possible?
Here's what I take to be the relevant part of the code.
package mig_tools;
require Exporter;
use strict;
use warnings;
our #ISA = qw(Exporter);
our #EXPORT = qw( ensure_included);
our $fname;
our #lines;
// definitions of already_has_include find_include_insert_point and ensure_included.
All-lowercase variables are reserved for local identifiers and pragma names. Your module should be in MigTools.pm and you should use it with use MigTools
The did not return a true value error is just because your module file didn't return a true value when it was executed. It is usual to add a line containing just 1; to the end of all modules
Your MigTools.pm should look like this. It is best to use the import directly from Exporter instead of subclassing it, and our doesn't help you to create a global variable, but I am a little worried about why you are structuring your module this way
package MigTools;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Exporter qw/ import /;
our #EXPORT = qw/ ensure_included /;
my ($fname, #lines)
sub ensure_included {
}
sub already_has_include {
}
sub find_include_insert_point {
}
sub ensure_included {
}
1;

using variables of one perl file in another

I am writing two perl script which requires an array consisting long list of strings
Here I wanted to declare my array in a separate perl package and use this package to access that array in other two perl scripts
Can you please tell me how could i do this
I checked for perl cpan module Exporter, but could find it can export subroutines,I only want my array to be exported not any subroutines
Thank you in advance.
Exporter can handle any package symbol, be it a subroutine or variable:
package My::Package;
use parent 'Exporter';
our #EXPORT_OK = qw/#foo/;
our #foo = (42, 666);
Then:
use My::Package qw/#foo/;
print "#foo\n";
Output: 42 666.
However, package variables (aka. “globals”) are frowned upon. Usually, techniques like object orientation provide a better solution. If you don't want to go there, you could still write a kind of “accessor” or “initializer”:
package My::Package;
sub main {
my #foo = (42, 666);
return \#foo;
}
Then:
use My::Package;
my $foo = My::Package::main();
print "#$foo\n";
You can create a package variable and export it, just like a subroutine:
package Local::Foo;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Exporter qw(import); # Allows you to export things
our #EXPORT = qw(#foo_array);
our #foo_array = ( ... );
1;
Now, you can use it in your program:
my #local_array = #foo_array;
This is called a really. really bad idea. Variables are polluting your main program's namespace without your knowledge. Plus, you could change #foo_array and destroy its special meaning.
If you go this route, do not do the export. Simply refer to the variable directly via the package name. After all, you've declared it with our:
package Local::Foo;
...
our #foo_array = ( ... );
And, in your program:
my #program_array = #Local::Foo::foo_array;
This is a tiny bit better. You won't have namespace collisions, and you know where that value is coming from. However, I would take the lead of use constant which uses subroutines to define constants. When you say this:
use PI => 3.141529;
What you're really doing is this:
sub PI {
return 3.141529;
}
That allows you to do this:
my $circumference = PI * ( 2 * $radius );
You could take a similar task with your array:
package Local::Foo;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Exporter qw(import);
our #EXPORT_OK = qw(foo_array);
sub foo_array {
return qw( ... );
}
Now, to use this in your program:
use Local::Foo qw(foo_array);
...
my #program_array - foo_array;
You can access the value of foo_array, but you can't change it at all. It's totally protected -- a constant value.
Yeah, I have to echo amon's deprecation of exporting. You can create it as a constant
package TheData;
use constant BIG_ARRAY => [ 0..300_000 ];
And then other packages can reference it as if it were a static member:
package DataUser;
my $big_array_data = TheData->BIG_ARRAY;
Much cleaner for a more modern Perl. (Note that constant just is shorthand for what amon specified.)