perl: iterate over a typeglob - perl

Question

Given a typeglob, how can I find which types are actually defined?
In my application, we user PERL as a simple configuration format.
I'd like to require() the user config file, then be able to see which variables are defined, as well as what types they are.
Code: (questionable quality advisory)
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my %before = %main::;
require "/path/to/my.config";
my %after = %main::;
foreach my $key (sort keys %after) {
next if exists $before{$symbol};
local *myglob = $after{$symbol};
#the SCALAR glob is always defined, so we check the value instead
if ( defined ${ *myglob{SCALAR} } ) {
my $val = ${ *myglob{SCALAR} };
print "\$$symbol = '".$val."'\n" ;
}
if ( defined *myglob{ARRAY} ) {
my #val = #{ *myglob{ARRAY} };
print "\#$symbol = ( '". join("', '", #val) . "' )\n" ;
}
if ( defined *myglob{HASH} ) {
my %val = %{ *myglob{HASH} };
print "\%$symbol = ( ";
while( my ($key, $val) = each %val ) {
print "$key=>'$val', ";
}
print ")\n" ;
}
}
my.config:
#A = ( a, b, c );
%B = ( b=>'bee' );
$C = 'see';
output:
#A = ( 'a', 'b', 'c' )
%B = ( b=>'bee', )
$C = 'see'
$_<my.config = 'my.config'

Answer 1

In the fully general case, you can't do what you want thanks to the following excerpt from perlref:
*foo{THING} returns undef if that particular THING hasn't been used yet, except in the case of scalars. *foo{SCALAR} returns a reference to an anonymous scalar if $foo hasn't been used yet. This might change in a future release.
But if you're willing to accept the restriction that any scalar must have a defined value to be detected, then you might use code such as
#! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
open my $fh, "<", \$_; # get DynaLoader out of the way
my %before = %main::;
require "my.config";
my %after = %main::;
foreach my $name (sort keys %after) {
unless (exists $before{$name}) {
no strict 'refs';
my $glob = $after{$name};
print "\$$name\n" if defined ${ *{$glob}{SCALAR} };
print "\#$name\n" if defined *{$glob}{ARRAY};
print "%$name\n" if defined *{$glob}{HASH};
print "&$name\n" if defined *{$glob}{CODE};
print "$name (format)\n" if defined *{$glob}{FORMAT};
print "$name (filehandle)\n" if defined *{$glob}{IO};
}
}
will get you there.
With my.config of
$JACKPOT = 3_756_788;
$YOU_CANT_SEE_ME = undef;
#OPTIONS = qw/ apple cherries bar orange lemon /;
%CREDITS = (1 => 1, 5 => 6, 10 => 15);
sub is_jackpot {
local $" = ""; # " fix Stack Overflow highlighting
"#_[0,1,2]" eq "barbarbar";
}
open FH, "<", \$JACKPOT;
format WinMessage =
You win!
.
the output is
%CREDITS
FH (filehandle)
$JACKPOT
#OPTIONS
WinMessage (format)
&is_jackpot
Printing the names takes a little work, but we can use the Data::Dumper module to take part of the burden. The front matter is similar:
#! /usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;
sub _dump {
my($ref) = #_;
local $Data::Dumper::Indent = 0;
local $Data::Dumper::Terse = 1;
scalar Dumper $ref;
}
open my $fh, "<", \$_; # get DynaLoader out of the way
my %before = %main::;
require "my.config";
my %after = %main::;
We need to dump the various slots slightly differently and in each case remove the trappings of references:
my %dump = (
SCALAR => sub {
my($ref,$name) = #_;
return unless defined $$ref;
"\$$name = " . substr _dump($ref), 1;
},
ARRAY => sub {
my($ref,$name) = #_;
return unless defined $ref;
for ("\#$name = " . _dump $ref) {
s/= \[/= (/;
s/\]$/)/;
return $_;
}
},
HASH => sub {
my($ref,$name) = #_;
return unless defined $ref;
for ("%$name = " . _dump $ref) {
s/= \{/= (/;
s/\}$/)/;
return $_;
}
},
);
Finally, we loop over the set-difference between %before and %after:
foreach my $name (sort keys %after) {
unless (exists $before{$name}) {
no strict 'refs';
my $glob = $after{$name};
foreach my $slot (keys %dump) {
my $var = $dump{$slot}(*{$glob}{$slot},$name);
print $var, "\n" if defined $var;
}
}
}
Using the my.config from your question, the output is
$ ./prog.pl
#A = ('a','b','c')
%B = ('b' => 'bee')
$C = 'see'

Answer 2

Working code using a CPAN module that gets some of the hair out of the way, Package::Stash. As noted in my comment to gbacon's answer, this is blind to the config file doing $someval = undef but that seems to be unavoidable, and at least the other cases are caught. It also limits itself to the SCALAR, ARRAY, HASH, CODE, and IO types -- getting GLOB and FORMAT is possible but it makes the code less pretty and also creates noise in the output :)
#!perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Package::Stash;
sub all_vars_in {
my ($package) = #_;
my #ret;
my $stash = Package::Stash->new($package);
for my $sym ($stash->list_all_package_symbols) {
for my $sigil (qw($ # % &), '') {
my $fullsym = "$sigil$sym";
push #ret, $fullsym if $stash->has_package_symbol($fullsym);
}
}
#ret;
}
my %before;
$before{$_} ++ for all_vars_in('main');
require "my.config";
for my $var (all_vars_in('main')) {
print "$var\n" unless exists $before{$var};
}

Answer 3

Beginning in 5.010, you can distinguish whether a SCALAR exists using the B introspection module; see Detecting declared package variables in perl
Update: example copied from that answer:
# package main;
our $f;
sub f {}
sub g {}
use B;
use 5.010;
if ( ${ B::svref_2object(\*f)->SV } ) {
say "f: Thar be a scalar tharrr!";
}
if ( ${ B::svref_2object(\*g)->SV } ) {
say "g: Thar be a scalar tharrr!";
}
1;

Answer 4

UPDATE:
gbacon is right. *glob{SCALAR} is defined.
Here is the output I get using your code:
Name "main::glob" used only once:
possible typo at
test_glob_foo_thing.pl line 13.
'FOO1' (SCALAR)
'FOO1' (GLOB)
'FOO2' (SCALAR)
'FOO2' (GLOB)
'_<my.config' (SCALAR)
'_<my.config' (GLOB)
This is despite FOO2 being defined as a hash, but not as a scalar.
ORIGINAL ANSWER:
If I understand you correctly, you simply need to use the defined built-in.
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my %before = %main::;
require "/path/to/my.config";
my %after = %main::;
foreach my $key (sort keys %after) {
if (not exists $before{$key}) {
if(defined($after{$key}){
my $val = $after{$key};
my $what = ref($val);
print "'$key' ($what)\n";
}
}
}

Answer 5

I hate to ask, but instead of messing around with typeglobs, why not switch to a real configuration format? e.g. check out Config::Simple and YAML.
I wouldn't recommend messing around with typeglobs and symbol tables in normal cases (some CPAN modules do that, but only at the bottom levels of large systems - e.g. Moose in the lowest levels of Class::MOP). Perl gives you a lot of rope to work with, but that rope is also quite happy to self-noosify and self-tie-around-your-neck if you're not careful :)
See also: How do you manage configuration files in Perl?

Answer 6

no strict 'refs';
my $func_name = 'myfunc';
*{$func_name}{CODE}()
use strict 'refs';

Answer 7

If you don't mind parsing Data::Dump output, you could use it to tease out the differences.
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dump qw{ dump };
my %before = %main::;
require "my.config";
my %after = %main::;
foreach my $key ( sort keys %after ) {
if ( not exists $before{$key} ) {
my $glob = $after{$key};
print "'$key' " . dump( $glob) . "\n";
}
}
Using this code with the following config file:
$FOO1 = 3;
$FOO2 = 'my_scalar';
%FOO2 = ( a=>'b', c=>'d' );
#FOO3 = ( 1 .. 5);
$FOO4 = [ 1 .. 5 ];
I believe that this output provides enough information to be able to figure out which parts of each type glob are defined:
'FOO1' do {
my $a = *main::FOO1;
$a = \3;
$a;
}
'FOO2' do {
my $a = *main::FOO2;
$a = \"my_scalar";
$a = { a => "b", c => "d" };
$a;
}
'FOO3' do {
my $a = *main::FOO3;
$a = [1 .. 5];
$a;
}
'FOO4' do {
my $a = *main::FOO4;
$a = \[1 .. 5];
$a;
}
'_<my.config' do {
my $a = *main::_<my.config;
$a = \"my.config";
$a;
}