Symbol - manipulate Perl symbols and their names
SYNOPSIS
use Symbol;
$sym = gensym;
open($sym, "filename");
$_ = <$sym>;
# etc.
ungensym $sym; # no effect
print qualify("x"), "\n"; # "Test::x"
print qualify("x", "FOO"), "\n" # "FOO::x"
print qualify("BAR::x"), "\n"; # "BAR::x"
print qualify("BAR::x", "FOO"), "\n"; # "BAR::x"
print qualify("STDOUT", "FOO"), "\n"; # "main::STDOUT" (global)
print qualify(\*x), "\n"; # returns \*x
print qualify(\*x, "FOO"), "\n"; # returns \*x
use strict refs;
print { qualify_to_ref $fh } "foo!\n";
$ref = qualify_to_ref $name, $pkg;
use Symbol qw(delete_package);
delete_package('Foo::Bar');
print "deleted\n" unless exists $Foo::{'Bar::'};
DESCRIPTION
`Symbol::gensym' creates an anonymous glob and returns a
reference to it. Such a glob reference can be used as a
file or directory handle.
For backward compatibility with older implementations that
didn't support anonymous globs, `Symbol::ungensym' is also
provided. But it doesn't do anything.
`Symbol::qualify' turns unqualified symbol names into
qualified variable names (e.g. "myvar" -> "MyPack
age::myvar"). If it is given a second parameter, `qual
ify' uses it as the default package; otherwise, it uses
the package of its caller. Regardless, global variable
names (e.g. "STDOUT", "ENV", "SIG") are always qualified
with "main::".
Qualification applies only to symbol names (strings).
References are left unchanged under the assumption that
they are glob references, which are qualified by their
nature.
`Symbol::qualify_to_ref' is just like `Symbol::qualify'
except that it returns a glob ref rather than a symbol
'refs'' is in effect.
`Symbol::delete_package' wipes out a whole package names
pace. Note this routine is not exported by default--you
may want to import it explicitly.
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