PERLTIE(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLTIE(1)
NAME
perltie - how to hide an object class in a simple variable
SYNOPSIS
tie VARIABLE, CLASSNAME, LIST
$object = tied VARIABLE
untie VARIABLE
DESCRIPTION
Prior to release 5.0 of Perl, a programmer could use dbmopen() to connect an on-disk database in the standard
Unix dbm(3x) format magically to a %HASH in their program. However, their Perl was either built with one
particular dbm library or another, but not both, and you couldn't extend this mechanism to other packages or
types of variables.
Now you can.
The tie() function binds a variable to a class (package) that will provide the implementation for access
methods for that variable. Once this magic has been performed, accessing a tied variable automatically
triggers method calls in the proper class. The complexity of the class is hidden behind magic methods calls.
The method names are in ALL CAPS, which is a convention that Perl uses to indicate that they're called
implicitly rather than explicitly--just like the BEGIN() and END() functions.
In the tie() call, "VARIABLE" is the name of the variable to be enchanted. "CLASSNAME" is the name of a class
implementing objects of the correct type. Any additional arguments in the "LIST" are passed to the
appropriate constructor method for that class--meaning TIESCALAR(), TIEARRAY(), TIEHASH(), or TIEHANDLE().
(Typically these are arguments such as might be passed to the dbminit() function of C.) The object returned by
the "new" method is also returned by the tie() function, which would be useful if you wanted to access other
methods in "CLASSNAME". (You don't actually have to return a reference to a right "type" (e.g., HASH or
"CLASSNAME") so long as it's a properly blessed object.) You can also retrieve a reference to the underlying
object using the tied() function.
Unlike dbmopen(), the tie() function will not "use" or "require" a module for you--you need to do that
explicitly yourself.
Tying Scalars
A class implementing a tied scalar should define the following methods: TIESCALAR, FETCH, STORE, and possibly
UNTIE and/or DESTROY.
Let's look at each in turn, using as an example a tie class for scalars that allows the user to do something
like:
tie $his_speed, 'Nice', getppid();
tie $my_speed, 'Nice', $$;
And now whenever either of those variables is accessed, its current system priority is retrieved and returned.
If those variables are set, then the process's priority is changed!
We'll use Jarkko Hietaniemi <[email protected]>'s BSD::Resource class (not included) to access the PRIO_PROCESS,
PRIO_MIN, and PRIO_MAX constants from your system, as well as the getpriority() and setpriority() system
calls. Here's the preamble of the class.
package Nice;
use Carp;
use BSD::Resource;
carp "Nice::Tie::Scalar got non-numeric pid $pid" if $^W;
return undef;
}
unless (kill 0, $pid) { # EPERM or ERSCH, no doubt
carp "Nice::Tie::Scalar got bad pid $pid: $!" if $^W;
return undef;
}
return bless \$pid, $class;
}
This tie class has chosen to return an error rather than raising an exception if its constructor should
fail. While this is how dbmopen() works, other classes may well not wish to be so forgiving. It checks
the global variable $^W to see whether to emit a bit of noise anyway.
FETCH this
This method will be triggered every time the tied variable is accessed (read). It takes no arguments
beyond its self reference, which is the object representing the scalar we're dealing with. Because in
this case we're using just a SCALAR ref for the tied scalar object, a simple $$self allows the method to
get at the real value stored there. In our example below, that real value is the process ID to which
we've tied our variable.
sub FETCH {
my $self = shift;
confess "wrong type" unless ref $self;
croak "usage error" if @_;
my $nicety;
local($!) = 0;
$nicety = getpriority(PRIO_PROCESS, $$self);
if ($!) { croak "getpriority failed: $!" }
return $nicety;
}
This time we've decided to blow up (raise an exception) if the renice fails--there's no place for us to
return an error otherwise, and it's probably the right thing to do.
STORE this, value
This method will be triggered every time the tied variable is set (assigned). Beyond its self reference,
it also expects one (and only one) argument: the new value the user is trying to assign. Don't worry about
returning a value from STORE; the semantic of assignment returning the assigned value is implemented with
FETCH.
sub STORE {
my $self = shift;
confess "wrong type" unless ref $self;
my $new_nicety = shift;
croak "usage error" if @_;
if ($new_nicety < PRIO_MIN) {
carp sprintf
"WARNING: priority %d less than minimum system priority %d",
$new_nicety, PRIO_MIN if $^W;
$new_nicety = PRIO_MIN;
}
UNTIE this
This method will be triggered when the "untie" occurs. This can be useful if the class needs to know when
no further calls will be made. (Except DESTROY of course.) See "The "untie" Gotcha" below for more
details.
DESTROY this
This method will be triggered when the tied variable needs to be destructed. As with other object
classes, such a method is seldom necessary, because Perl deallocates its moribund object's memory for you
automatically--this isn't C++, you know. We'll use a DESTROY method here for debugging purposes only.
sub DESTROY {
my $self = shift;
confess "wrong type" unless ref $self;
carp "[ Nice::DESTROY pid $$self ]" if $Nice::DEBUG;
}
That's about all there is to it. Actually, it's more than all there is to it, because we've done a few nice
things here for the sake of completeness, robustness, and general aesthetics. Simpler TIESCALAR classes are
certainly possible.
Tying Arrays
A class implementing a tied ordinary array should define the following methods: TIEARRAY, FETCH, STORE,
FETCHSIZE, STORESIZE and perhaps UNTIE and/or DESTROY.
FETCHSIZE and STORESIZE are used to provide $#array and equivalent "scalar(@array)" access.
The methods POP, PUSH, SHIFT, UNSHIFT, SPLICE, DELETE, and EXISTS are required if the perl operator with the
corresponding (but lowercase) name is to operate on the tied array. The Tie::Array class can be used as a base
class to implement the first five of these in terms of the basic methods above. The default implementations
of DELETE and EXISTS in Tie::Array simply "croak".
In addition EXTEND will be called when perl would have pre-extended allocation in a real array.
For this discussion, we'll implement an array whose elements are a fixed size at creation. If you try to
create an element larger than the fixed size, you'll take an exception. For example:
use FixedElem_Array;
tie @array, 'FixedElem_Array', 3;
$array[0] = 'cat'; # ok.
$array[1] = 'dogs'; # exception, length('dogs') > 3.
The preamble code for the class is as follows:
package FixedElem_Array;
use Carp;
use strict;
TIEARRAY classname, LIST
This is the constructor for the class. That means it is expected to return a blessed reference through
which the new array (probably an anonymous ARRAY ref) will be accessed.
In our example, just to show you that you don't really have to return an ARRAY reference, we'll choose a
ELEMSIZE => $elemsize,
ARRAY => [],
}, $class;
}
FETCH this, index
This method will be triggered every time an individual element the tied array is accessed (read). It
takes one argument beyond its self reference: the index whose value we're trying to fetch.
sub FETCH {
my $self = shift;
my $index = shift;
return $self->{ARRAY}->[$index];
}
If a negative array index is used to read from an array, the index will be translated to a positive one
internally by calling FETCHSIZE before being passed to FETCH. You may disable this feature by assigning a
true value to the variable $NEGATIVE_INDICES in the tied array class.
As you may have noticed, the name of the FETCH method (et al.) is the same for all accesses, even though
the constructors differ in names (TIESCALAR vs TIEARRAY). While in theory you could have the same class
servicing several tied types, in practice this becomes cumbersome, and it's easiest to keep them at simply
one tie type per class.
STORE this, index, value
This method will be triggered every time an element in the tied array is set (written). It takes two
arguments beyond its self reference: the index at which we're trying to store something and the value
we're trying to put there.
In our example, "undef" is really "$self->{ELEMSIZE}" number of spaces so we have a little more work to do
here:
sub STORE {
my $self = shift;
my( $index, $value ) = @_;
if ( length $value > $self->{ELEMSIZE} ) {
croak "length of $value is greater than $self->{ELEMSIZE}";
}
# fill in the blanks
$self->EXTEND( $index ) if $index > $self->FETCHSIZE();
# right justify to keep element size for smaller elements
$self->{ARRAY}->[$index] = sprintf "%$self->{ELEMSIZE}s", $value;
}
Negative indexes are treated the same as with FETCH.
FETCHSIZE this
Returns the total number of items in the tied array associated with object this. (Equivalent to
"scalar(@array)"). For example:
sub FETCHSIZE {
my $self = shift;
return scalar @{$self->{ARRAY}};
}
foreach ( $count - $self->FETCHSIZE() .. $count ) {
$self->STORE( $_, '' );
}
} elsif ( $count < $self->FETCHSIZE() ) {
foreach ( 0 .. $self->FETCHSIZE() - $count - 2 ) {
$self->POP();
}
}
}
EXTEND this, count
Informative call that array is likely to grow to have count entries. Can be used to optimize allocation.
This method need do nothing.
In our example, we want to make sure there are no blank ("undef") entries, so "EXTEND" will make use of
"STORESIZE" to fill elements as needed:
sub EXTEND {
my $self = shift;
my $count = shift;
$self->STORESIZE( $count );
}
EXISTS this, key
Verify that the element at index key exists in the tied array this.
In our example, we will determine that if an element consists of "$self->{ELEMSIZE}" spaces only, it does
not exist:
sub EXISTS {
my $self = shift;
my $index = shift;
return 0 if ! defined $self->{ARRAY}->[$index] ||
$self->{ARRAY}->[$index] eq ' ' x $self->{ELEMSIZE};
return 1;
}
DELETE this, key
Delete the element at index key from the tied array this.
In our example, a deleted item is "$self->{ELEMSIZE}" spaces:
sub DELETE {
my $self = shift;
my $index = shift;
return $self->STORE( $index, '' );
}
CLEAR this
Clear (remove, delete, ...) all values from the tied array associated with object this. For example:
sub CLEAR {
my $self = shift;
return $self->{ARRAY} = [];
POP this
Remove last element of the array and return it. For example:
sub POP {
my $self = shift;
return pop @{$self->{ARRAY}};
}
SHIFT this
Remove the first element of the array (shifting other elements down) and return it. For example:
sub SHIFT {
my $self = shift;
return shift @{$self->{ARRAY}};
}
UNSHIFT this, LIST
Insert LIST elements at the beginning of the array, moving existing elements up to make room. For
example:
sub UNSHIFT {
my $self = shift;
my @list = @_;
my $size = scalar( @list );
# make room for our list
@{$self->{ARRAY}}[ $size .. $#{$self->{ARRAY}} + $size ]
= @{$self->{ARRAY}};
$self->STORE( $_, $list[$_] ) foreach 0 .. $#list;
}
SPLICE this, offset, length, LIST
Perform the equivalent of "splice" on the array.
offset is optional and defaults to zero, negative values count back from the end of the array.
length is optional and defaults to rest of the array.
LIST may be empty.
Returns a list of the original length elements at offset.
In our example, we'll use a little shortcut if there is a LIST:
sub SPLICE {
my $self = shift;
my $offset = shift || 0;
my $length = shift || $self->FETCHSIZE() - $offset;
my @list = ();
if ( @_ ) {
tie @list, __PACKAGE__, $self->{ELEMSIZE};
@list = @_;
}
return splice @{$self->{ARRAY}}, $offset, $length, @list;
define the following methods: TIEHASH is the constructor. FETCH and STORE access the key and value pairs.
EXISTS reports whether a key is present in the hash, and DELETE deletes one. CLEAR empties the hash by
deleting all the key and value pairs. FIRSTKEY and NEXTKEY implement the keys() and each() functions to
iterate over all the keys. SCALAR is triggered when the tied hash is evaluated in scalar context. UNTIE is
called when "untie" happens, and DESTROY is called when the tied variable is garbage collected.
If this seems like a lot, then feel free to inherit from merely the standard Tie::StdHash module for most of
your methods, redefining only the interesting ones. See Tie::Hash for details.
Remember that Perl distinguishes between a key not existing in the hash, and the key existing in the hash but
having a corresponding value of "undef". The two possibilities can be tested with the "exists()" and
"defined()" functions.
Here's an example of a somewhat interesting tied hash class: it gives you a hash representing a particular
user's dot files. You index into the hash with the name of the file (minus the dot) and you get back that dot
file's contents. For example:
use DotFiles;
tie %dot, 'DotFiles';
if ( $dot{profile} =~ /MANPATH/ ||
$dot{login} =~ /MANPATH/ ||
$dot{cshrc} =~ /MANPATH/ )
{
print "you seem to set your MANPATH\n";
}
Or here's another sample of using our tied class:
tie %him, 'DotFiles', 'daemon';
foreach $f ( keys %him ) {
printf "daemon dot file %s is size %d\n",
$f, length $him{$f};
}
In our tied hash DotFiles example, we use a regular hash for the object containing several important fields,
of which only the "{LIST}" field will be what the user thinks of as the real hash.
USER whose dot files this object represents
HOME where those dot files live
CLOBBER
whether we should try to change or remove those dot files
LIST the hash of dot file names and content mappings
Here's the start of Dotfiles.pm:
package DotFiles;
use Carp;
sub whowasi { (caller(1))[3] . '()' }
my $DEBUG = 0;
sub debug { $DEBUG = @_ ? shift : 1 }
sub TIEHASH {
my $self = shift;
my $user = shift || $>;
my $dotdir = shift || '';
croak "usage: @{[&whowasi]} [USER [DOTDIR]]" if @_;
$user = getpwuid($user) if $user =~ /^\d+$/;
my $dir = (getpwnam($user))[7]
|| croak "@{[&whowasi]}: no user $user";
$dir .= "/$dotdir" if $dotdir;
my $node = {
USER => $user,
HOME => $dir,
LIST => {},
CLOBBER => 0,
};
opendir(DIR, $dir)
|| croak "@{[&whowasi]}: can't opendir $dir: $!";
foreach $dot ( grep /^\./ && -f "$dir/$_", readdir(DIR)) {
$dot =~ s/^\.//;
$node->{LIST}{$dot} = undef;
}
closedir DIR;
return bless $node, $self;
}
It's probably worth mentioning that if you're going to filetest the return values out of a readdir, you'd
better prepend the directory in question. Otherwise, because we didn't chdir() there, it would have been
testing the wrong file.
FETCH this, key
This method will be triggered every time an element in the tied hash is accessed (read). It takes one
argument beyond its self reference: the key whose value we're trying to fetch.
Here's the fetch for our DotFiles example.
sub FETCH {
carp &whowasi if $DEBUG;
my $self = shift;
my $dot = shift;
my $dir = $self->{HOME};
my $file = "$dir/.$dot";
unless (exists $self->{LIST}->{$dot} || -f $file) {
carp "@{[&whowasi]}: no $dot file" if $DEBUG;
return undef;
}
if (defined $self->{LIST}->{$dot}) {
return $self->{LIST}->{$dot};
} else {
return $self->{LIST}->{$dot} = `cat $dir/.$dot`;
}
called the clobber() method on the original object reference returned by tie().
sub STORE {
carp &whowasi if $DEBUG;
my $self = shift;
my $dot = shift;
my $value = shift;
my $file = $self->{HOME} . "/.$dot";
my $user = $self->{USER};
croak "@{[&whowasi]}: $file not clobberable"
unless $self->{CLOBBER};
open(my $f, '>', $file) || croak "can't open $file: $!";
print $f $value;
close($f);
}
If they wanted to clobber something, they might say:
$ob = tie %daemon_dots, 'daemon';
$ob->clobber(1);
$daemon_dots{signature} = "A true daemon\n";
Another way to lay hands on a reference to the underlying object is to use the tied() function, so they
might alternately have set clobber using:
tie %daemon_dots, 'daemon';
tied(%daemon_dots)->clobber(1);
The clobber method is simply:
sub clobber {
my $self = shift;
$self->{CLOBBER} = @_ ? shift : 1;
}
DELETE this, key
This method is triggered when we remove an element from the hash, typically by using the delete()
function. Again, we'll be careful to check whether they really want to clobber files.
sub DELETE {
carp &whowasi if $DEBUG;
my $self = shift;
my $dot = shift;
my $file = $self->{HOME} . "/.$dot";
croak "@{[&whowasi]}: won't remove file $file"
unless $self->{CLOBBER};
delete $self->{LIST}->{$dot};
my $success = unlink($file);
carp "@{[&whowasi]}: can't unlink $file: $!" unless $success;
$success;
}
sub CLEAR {
carp &whowasi if $DEBUG;
my $self = shift;
croak "@{[&whowasi]}: won't remove all dot files for $self->{USER}"
unless $self->{CLOBBER} > 1;
my $dot;
foreach $dot ( keys %{$self->{LIST}}) {
$self->DELETE($dot);
}
}
EXISTS this, key
This method is triggered when the user uses the exists() function on a particular hash. In our example,
we'll look at the "{LIST}" hash element for this:
sub EXISTS {
carp &whowasi if $DEBUG;
my $self = shift;
my $dot = shift;
return exists $self->{LIST}->{$dot};
}
FIRSTKEY this
This method will be triggered when the user is going to iterate through the hash, such as via a keys() or
each() call.
sub FIRSTKEY {
carp &whowasi if $DEBUG;
my $self = shift;
my $a = keys %{$self->{LIST}}; # reset each() iterator
each %{$self->{LIST}}
}
NEXTKEY this, lastkey
This method gets triggered during a keys() or each() iteration. It has a second argument which is the
last key that had been accessed. This is useful if you're carrying about ordering or calling the iterator
from more than one sequence, or not really storing things in a hash anywhere.
For our example, we're using a real hash so we'll do just the simple thing, but we'll have to go through
the LIST field indirectly.
sub NEXTKEY {
carp &whowasi if $DEBUG;
my $self = shift;
return each %{ $self->{LIST} }
}
SCALAR this
This is called when the hash is evaluated in scalar context. In order to mimic the behaviour of untied
hashes, this method should return a false value when the tied hash is considered empty. If this method
does not exist, perl will make some educated guesses and return true when the hash is inside an iteration.
If this isn't the case, FIRSTKEY is called, and the result will be a false value if FIRSTKEY returns the
empty list, true otherwise.
UNTIE this
This is called when "untie" occurs. See "The "untie" Gotcha" below.
DESTROY this
This method is triggered when a tied hash is about to go out of scope. You don't really need it unless
you're trying to add debugging or have auxiliary state to clean up. Here's a very simple function:
sub DESTROY {
carp &whowasi if $DEBUG;
}
Note that functions such as keys() and values() may return huge lists when used on large objects, like DBM
files. You may prefer to use the each() function to iterate over such. Example:
# print out history file offsets
use NDBM_File;
tie(%HIST, 'NDBM_File', '/usr/lib/news/history', 1, 0);
while (($key,$val) = each %HIST) {
print $key, ' = ', unpack('L',$val), "\n";
}
untie(%HIST);
Tying FileHandles
This is partially implemented now.
A class implementing a tied filehandle should define the following methods: TIEHANDLE, at least one of PRINT,
PRINTF, WRITE, READLINE, GETC, READ, and possibly CLOSE, UNTIE and DESTROY. The class can also provide:
BINMODE, OPEN, EOF, FILENO, SEEK, TELL - if the corresponding perl operators are used on the handle.
When STDERR is tied, its PRINT method will be called to issue warnings and error messages. This feature is
temporarily disabled during the call, which means you can use "warn()" inside PRINT without starting a
recursive loop. And just like "__WARN__" and "__DIE__" handlers, STDERR's PRINT method may be called to
report parser errors, so the caveats mentioned under "%SIG" in perlvar apply.
All of this is especially useful when perl is embedded in some other program, where output to STDOUT and
STDERR may have to be redirected in some special way. See nvi and the Apache module for examples.
When tying a handle, the first argument to "tie" should begin with an asterisk. So, if you are tying STDOUT,
use *STDOUT. If you have assigned it to a scalar variable, say $handle, use *$handle. "tie $handle" ties the
scalar variable $handle, not the handle inside it.
In our example we're going to create a shouting handle.
package Shout;
TIEHANDLE classname, LIST
This is the constructor for the class. That means it is expected to return a blessed reference of some
sort. The reference can be used to hold some internal information.
sub TIEHANDLE { print "<shout>\n"; my $i; bless \$i, shift }
WRITE this, LIST
This method will be called when the handle is written to via the "syswrite" function.
"say()" acts just like "print()" except $\ will be localized to "\n" so you need do nothing special to
handle "say()" in "PRINT()".
PRINTF this, LIST
This method will be triggered every time the tied handle is printed to with the "printf()" function.
Beyond its self reference it also expects the format and list that was passed to the printf function.
sub PRINTF {
shift;
my $fmt = shift;
print sprintf($fmt, @_);
}
READ this, LIST
This method will be called when the handle is read from via the "read" or "sysread" functions.
sub READ {
my $self = shift;
my $bufref = \$_[0];
my(undef,$len,$offset) = @_;
print "READ called, \$buf=$bufref, \$len=$len, \$offset=$offset";
# add to $$bufref, set $len to number of characters read
$len;
}
READLINE this
This method is called when the handle is read via "<HANDLE>" or "readline HANDLE".
As per "readline", in scalar context it should return the next line, or "undef" for no more data. In list
context it should return all remaining lines, or an empty list for no more data. The strings returned
should include the input record separator $/ (see perlvar), unless it is "undef" (which means "slurp"
mode).
sub READLINE {
my $r = shift;
if (wantarray) {
return ("all remaining\n",
"lines up\n",
"to eof\n");
} else {
return "READLINE called " . ++$$r . " times\n";
}
}
GETC this
This method will be called when the "getc" function is called.
sub GETC { print "Don't GETC, Get Perl"; return "a"; }
EOF this
This method will be called when the "eof" function is called.
Starting with Perl 5.12, an additional integer parameter will be passed. It will be zero if "eof" is
As with the other types of ties, this method will be called when "untie" happens. It may be appropriate
to "auto CLOSE" when this occurs. See "The "untie" Gotcha" below.
DESTROY this
As with the other types of ties, this method will be called when the tied handle is about to be destroyed.
This is useful for debugging and possibly cleaning up.
sub DESTROY { print "</shout>\n" }
Here's how to use our little example:
tie(*FOO,'Shout');
print FOO "hello\n";
$a = 4; $b = 6;
print FOO $a, " plus ", $b, " equals ", $a + $b, "\n";
print <FOO>;
UNTIE this
You can define for all tie types an UNTIE method that will be called at untie(). See "The "untie" Gotcha"
below.
The "untie" Gotcha
If you intend making use of the object returned from either tie() or tied(), and if the tie's target class
defines a destructor, there is a subtle gotcha you must guard against.
As setup, consider this (admittedly rather contrived) example of a tie; all it does is use a file to keep a
log of the values assigned to a scalar.
package Remember;
use strict;
use warnings;
use IO::File;
sub TIESCALAR {
my $class = shift;
my $filename = shift;
my $handle = IO::File->new( "> $filename" )
or die "Cannot open $filename: $!\n";
print $handle "The Start\n";
bless {FH => $handle, Value => 0}, $class;
}
sub FETCH {
my $self = shift;
return $self->{Value};
}
sub STORE {
my $self = shift;
my $value = shift;
my $handle = $self->{FH};
print $handle "$value\n";
Here is an example that makes use of this tie:
use strict;
use Remember;
my $fred;
tie $fred, 'Remember', 'myfile.txt';
$fred = 1;
$fred = 4;
$fred = 5;
untie $fred;
system "cat myfile.txt";
This is the output when it is executed:
The Start
1
4
5
The End
So far so good. Those of you who have been paying attention will have spotted that the tied object hasn't
been used so far. So lets add an extra method to the Remember class to allow comments to be included in the
file; say, something like this:
sub comment {
my $self = shift;
my $text = shift;
my $handle = $self->{FH};
print $handle $text, "\n";
}
And here is the previous example modified to use the "comment" method (which requires the tied object):
use strict;
use Remember;
my ($fred, $x);
$x = tie $fred, 'Remember', 'myfile.txt';
$fred = 1;
$fred = 4;
comment $x "changing...";
$fred = 5;
untie $fred;
system "cat myfile.txt";
When this code is executed there is no output. Here's why:
When a variable is tied, it is associated with the object which is the return value of the TIESCALAR,
TIEARRAY, or TIEHASH function. This object normally has only one reference, namely, the implicit reference
from the tied variable. When untie() is called, that reference is destroyed. Then, as in the first example
above, the object's destructor (DESTROY) is called, which is normal for objects that have no more valid
references; and thus the file is closed.
To get the script to work properly and silence the warning make sure there are no valid references to the tied
object before untie() is called:
undef $x;
untie $fred;
Now that UNTIE exists the class designer can decide which parts of the class functionality are really
associated with "untie" and which with the object being destroyed. What makes sense for a given class depends
on whether the inner references are being kept so that non-tie-related methods can be called on the object.
But in most cases it probably makes sense to move the functionality that would have been in DESTROY to the
UNTIE method.
If the UNTIE method exists then the warning above does not occur. Instead the UNTIE method is passed the count
of "extra" references and can issue its own warning if appropriate. e.g. to replicate the no UNTIE case this
method can be used:
sub UNTIE
{
my ($obj,$count) = @_;
carp "untie attempted while $count inner references still exist" if $count;
}
SEE ALSO
See DB_File or Config for some interesting tie() implementations. A good starting point for many tie()
implementations is with one of the modules Tie::Scalar, Tie::Array, Tie::Hash, or Tie::Handle.
BUGS
The bucket usage information provided by "scalar(%hash)" is not available. What this means is that using
%tied_hash in boolean context doesn't work right (currently this always tests false, regardless of whether the
hash is empty or hash elements).
Localizing tied arrays or hashes does not work. After exiting the scope the arrays or the hashes are not
restored.
Counting the number of entries in a hash via "scalar(keys(%hash))" or "scalar(values(%hash)") is inefficient
since it needs to iterate through all the entries with FIRSTKEY/NEXTKEY.
Tied hash/array slices cause multiple FETCH/STORE pairs, there are no tie methods for slice operations.
You cannot easily tie a multilevel data structure (such as a hash of hashes) to a dbm file. The first problem
is that all but GDBM and Berkeley DB have size limitations, but beyond that, you also have problems with how
references are to be represented on disk. One module that does attempt to address this need is DBM::Deep.
Check your nearest CPAN site as described in perlmodlib for source code. Note that despite its name,
DBM::Deep does not use dbm. Another earlier attempt at solving the problem is MLDBM, which is also available
on the CPAN, but which has some fairly serious limitations.
Tied filehandles are still incomplete. sysopen(), truncate(), flock(), fcntl(), stat() and -X can't currently
be trapped.
AUTHOR
Tom Christiansen
TIEHANDLE by Sven Verdoolaege <[email protected]> and Doug MacEachern <[email protected]>
Back to main site | Back to man page index