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FileHandle

NAME

FileHandle - supply object methods for filehandles

SYNOPSIS

    use FileHandle;

    $fh = new FileHandle;
    if ($fh->open("< file")) {
        print <$fh>;
        $fh->close;
    }

    $fh = new FileHandle "> FOO";
    if (defined $fh) {
        print $fh "bar\n";
        $fh->close;
    }

    $fh = new FileHandle "file", "r";
    if (defined $fh) {
        print <$fh>;
        undef $fh;       # automatically closes the file
    }

    $fh = new FileHandle "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!

perldoc2tree.cgi: /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.5/FileHandle.pm: cannot resolve L in paragraph 41.

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

perldoc2tree.cgi: /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.5/FileHandle.pm: cannot resolve L in paragraph 43.

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: perldoc2tree.cgi: /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.5/FileHandle.pm: cannot resolve L in paragraph 48. See perlfunc/print.
$fh->printf: perldoc2tree.cgi: /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.5/FileHandle.pm: cannot resolve L in paragraph 50. See perlfunc/printf.
$fh->getline: perldoc2tree.cgi: /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.5/FileHandle.pm: cannot resolve L in paragraph 52. This works like <$fh> described in perlop/``I/O Operators'' 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.

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

SEE ALSO