NAME
FileHandle - supply object methods for filehandles
SYNOPSIS
use FileHandle; $fh = FileHandle->new; if ($fh->open("< file")) { print <$fh>; $fh->close; } $fh = FileHandle->new("> FOO"); if (defined $fh) { print $fh "bar\n"; $fh->close; } $fh = FileHandle->new("file", "r"); if (defined $fh) { print <$fh>; undef $fh; # automatically closes the file } $fh = FileHandle->new("file", O_WRONLY|O_APPEND); if (defined $fh) { print $fh "corge\n"; undef $fh; # automatically closes the file } $pos = $fh->getpos; $fh->setpos($pos); $fh->setvbuf($buffer_var, _IOLBF, 1024); ($readfh, $writefh) = FileHandle::pipe; autoflush STDOUT 1;
DESCRIPTION
NOTE: This class is now a front-end to the IO::* classes.
FileHandle::new
creates a FileHandle
, which is a reference to a newly created symbol (see the Symbol
package). If it receives any parameters, they are passed to FileHandle::open
; if the open fails, the FileHandle
object is destroyed. Otherwise, it is returned to the caller.
FileHandle::new_from_fd
creates a FileHandle
like new
does. It requires two parameters, which are passed to FileHandle::fdopen
; if the fdopen fails, the FileHandle
object is destroyed. Otherwise, it is returned to the caller.
FileHandle::open
accepts one parameter or two. With one parameter, it is just a front end for the built-in open
function. With two parameters, the first parameter is a filename that may include whitespace or other special characters, and the second parameter is the open mode, optionally followed by a file permission value.
If FileHandle::open
receives a Perl mode string (">", "+<", etc.) or a POSIX fopen() mode string ("w", "r+", etc.), it uses the basic Perl open
operator.
If FileHandle::open
is given a numeric mode, it passes that mode and the optional permissions value to the Perl sysopen
operator. For convenience, FileHandle::import
tries to import the O_XXX constants from the Fcntl module. If dynamic loading is not available, this may fail, but the rest of FileHandle will still work.
FileHandle::fdopen
is like open
except that its first parameter is not a filename but rather a file handle name, a FileHandle object, or a file descriptor number.
If the C functions fgetpos() and fsetpos() are available, then FileHandle::getpos
returns an opaque value that represents the current position of the FileHandle, and FileHandle::setpos
uses that value to return to a previously visited position.
If the C function setvbuf() is available, then FileHandle::setvbuf
sets the buffering policy for the FileHandle. The calling sequence for the Perl function is the same as its C counterpart, including the macros _IOFBF
, _IOLBF
, and _IONBF
, except that the buffer parameter specifies a scalar variable to use as a buffer. WARNING: A variable used as a buffer by FileHandle::setvbuf
must not be modified in any way until the FileHandle is closed or until FileHandle::setvbuf
is called again, or memory corruption may result!
See perlfunc for complete descriptions of each of the following supported FileHandle
methods, which are just front ends for the corresponding built-in functions:
close fileno getc gets eof clearerr seek tell
See perlvar for complete descriptions of each of the following supported FileHandle
methods:
autoflush output_field_separator output_record_separator input_record_separator input_line_number format_page_number format_lines_per_page format_lines_left format_name format_top_name format_line_break_characters format_formfeed
Furthermore, for doing normal I/O you might need these:
-
$fh->print
See print.
-
$fh->printf
See printf.
-
$fh->getline
This works like <$fh> described in I/O Operators in perlop except that it's more readable and can be safely called in a list context but still returns just one line.
-
$fh->getlines
This works like <$fh> when called in a list context to read all the remaining lines in a file, except that it's more readable. It will also croak() if accidentally called in a scalar context.
There are many other functions available since FileHandle is descended from IO::File, IO::Seekable, and IO::Handle. Please see those respective pages for documentation on more functions.
SEE ALSO
The IO extension, perlfunc, I/O Operators in perlop.
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