1IO::Stringy(3)        User Contributed Perl Documentation       IO::Stringy(3)
2
3
4

NAME

6       IO-stringy - I/O on in-core objects like strings and arrays
7

SYNOPSIS

9           IO::
10           ::AtomicFile   adpO  Write a file which is updated atomically     ERYQ
11           ::Lines        bdpO  I/O handle to read/write to array of lines   ERYQ
12           ::Scalar       RdpO  I/O handle to read/write to a string         ERYQ
13           ::ScalarArray  RdpO  I/O handle to read/write to array of scalars ERYQ
14           ::Wrap         RdpO  Wrap old-style FHs in standard OO interface  ERYQ
15           ::WrapTie      adpO  Tie your handles & retain full OO interface  ERYQ
16

DESCRIPTION

18       This toolkit primarily provides modules for performing both traditional
19       and object-oriented i/o) on things other than normal filehandles; in
20       particular, IO::Scalar, IO::ScalarArray, and IO::Lines.
21
22       In the more-traditional IO::Handle front, we have IO::AtomicFile which
23       may be used to painlessly create files which are updated atomically.
24
25       And in the "this-may-prove-useful" corner, we have IO::Wrap, whose
26       exported wraphandle() function will clothe anything that's not a
27       blessed object in an IO::Handle-like wrapper... so you can just use OO
28       syntax and stop worrying about whether your function's caller handed
29       you a string, a globref, or a FileHandle.
30

WARNINGS

32       Perl's TIEHANDLE spec was incomplete prior to 5.005_57; it was missing
33       support for "seek()", "tell()", and "eof()".  Attempting to use these
34       functions with an IO::Scalar, IO::ScalarArray, IO::Lines, etc. will not
35       work prior to 5.005_57.  None of the relevant methods will be invoked
36       by Perl; and even worse, this kind of bug can lie dormant for a while.
37       If you turn warnings on (via $^W or "perl -w"), and you see something
38       like this...
39
40           seek() on unopened file
41
42       ...then you are probably trying to use one of these functions on one of
43       our IO:: classes with an old Perl.  The remedy is to simply use the OO
44       version; e.g.:
45
46           $SH->seek(0,0);    ### GOOD: will work on any 5.005
47           seek($SH,0,0);     ### WARNING: will only work on 5.005_57 and beyond
48

INSTALLATION

50   Requirements
51       As of version 2.x, this toolkit requires Perl 5.005 for the IO::Handle
52       subclasses, and 5.005_57 or better is strongly recommended.  See
53       "WARNINGS" for details.
54
55   Directions
56       Most of you already know the drill...
57
58           perl Makefile.PL
59           make
60           make test
61           make install
62
63       For everyone else out there...  if you've never installed Perl code
64       before, or you're trying to use this in an environment where your
65       sysadmin or ISP won't let you do interesting things, relax: since this
66       module contains no binary extensions, you can cheat.  That means
67       copying the directory tree under my "./lib" directory into someplace
68       where your script can "see" it.  For example, under Linux:
69
70           cp -r IO-stringy-1.234/lib/* /path/to/my/perl/
71
72       Now, in your Perl code, do this:
73
74           use lib "/path/to/my/perl";
75           use IO::Scalar;                   ### or whatever
76
77       Ok, now you've been told.  At this point, anyone who whines about not
78       being given enough information gets an unflattering haiku written about
79       them in the next change log.  I'll do it.  Don't think I won't.
80

VERSION

82       $Id: Stringy.pm,v 1.3 2005/02/10 21:24:05 dfs Exp $
83

TO DO

85       (2000/08/02)  Finalize $/ support
86           Graham Barr submitted this patch half a year ago; Like a moron, I
87           lost his message under a ton of others, and only now have the
88           experimental implementation done.
89
90           Will the sudden sensitivity to $/ hose anyone out there?  I'm
91           worried, so you have to enable it explicitly in 1.x.  It will be on
92           by default in 2.x, though only IO::Scalar has been implemented.
93
94       (2001/08/08)  Remove IO::WrapTie from new IO:: classes
95           It's not needed.  Backwards compatibility could be maintained by
96           having new_tie() be identical to new().  Heck, I'll bet that
97           IO::WrapTie should be reimplemented so the returned object is just
98           like an IO::Scalar in its use of globrefs.
99

CHANGE LOG

101       Version 2.110   (2005/02/10)
102           Maintainership taken over by DSKOLL <dfs@roaringpenguin.com>
103
104           Closed the following bugs at
105           https://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=IO-stringy:
106
107           2208 IO::ScalarArray->getline does not return undef for EOF if
108           undef($/)
109
110           7132 IO-stringy/Makefile.PL bug - name should be module name
111
112           11249 IO::Scalar flush shouldn't return undef
113
114           2172 $\ (output record separator) not respected
115
116           8605 IO::InnerFile::seek() should return 1 on success
117
118           4798 *.html in lib/
119
120           4369 Improvement: handling of fixed-size reads in IO::Scalar
121
122           (Actually, bug 4369 was closed in Version 2.109)
123
124       Version 2.109   (2003/12/21)
125           IO::Scalar::getline now works with ref to int.  Thanks to Dominique
126           Quatravaux for this patch.
127
128       Version 2.108   (2001/08/20)
129           The terms-of-use have been placed in the distribution file
130           "COPYING".  Also, small documentation tweaks were made.
131
132       Version 2.105   (2001/08/09)
133           Added support for various seek() whences to IO::ScalarArray.
134
135           Added support for consulting $/ in IO::Scalar and IO::ScalarArray.
136           The old "use_RS()" is not even an option.  Unsupported record
137           separators will cause a croak().
138
139           Added a lot of regression tests to supoprt the above.
140
141           Better on-line docs (hyperlinks to individual functions).
142
143       Version 2.103   (2001/08/08)
144           After sober consideration I have reimplemented IO::Scalar::print()
145           so that it once again always seeks to the end of the string.
146           Benchmarks show the new implementation to be just as fast as
147           Juergen's contributed patch; until someone can convince me
148           otherwise, the current, safer implementation stays.
149
150           I thought more about giving IO::Scalar two separate handles, one
151           for reading and one for writing, as suggested by Binkley.  His
152           points about what tell() and eof() return are, I think, show-
153           stoppers for this feature.  Even the manpages for stdio's fseek()
154           seem to imply a single file position indicator, not two.  So I
155           think I will take this off the TO DO list.  Remedy: you can always
156           have two handles open on the same scalar, one which you only write
157           to, and one which you only read from.  That should give the same
158           effect.
159
160       Version 2.101   (2001/08/07)
161           Alpha release.  This is the initial release of the "IO::Scalar and
162           friends are now subclasses of IO::Handle".  I'm flinging it against
163           the wall.  Please tell me if the banana sticks.  When it does, the
164           banana will be called 2.2x.
165
166           First off, many many thanks to Doug Wilson, who has provided an
167           invaluable service by patching IO::Scalar and friends so that they
168           (1) inherit from IO::Handle, (2) automatically tie themselves so
169           that the "new()" objects can be used in native i/o constructs, and
170           (3) doing it so that the whole damn thing passes its regression
171           tests.  As Doug knows, my globref Kung-Fu was not up to the task;
172           he graciously provided the patches.  This has earned him a seat at
173           the Co-Authors table, and the right to have me address him as
174           sensei.
175
176           Performance of IO::Scalar::print() has been improved by as much as
177           2x for lots of little prints, with the cost of forcing those who
178           print-then-seek-then-print to explicitly seek to end-of-string
179           before printing again.  Thanks to Juergen Zeller for this patch.
180
181           Added the COPYING file, which had been missing from prior versions.
182           Thanks to Albert Chin-A-Young for pointing this out.
183
184           IO::Scalar consults $/ by default (1.x ignored it by default).
185           Yes, I still need to support IO::ScalarArray.
186
187       Version 1.221   (2001/08/07)
188           I threatened in "INSTALLATION" to write an unflattering haiku about
189           anyone who whined that I gave them insufficient information...  but
190           it turns out that I left out a crucial direction.  D'OH!  Thanks to
191           David Beroff for the "patch" and the haiku...
192
193                  Enough info there?
194                    Here's unflattering haiku:
195                  Forgot the line, "make"!  ;-)
196
197       Version 1.220   (2001/04/03)
198           Added untested SEEK, TELL, and EOF methods to IO::Scalar and
199           IO::ScalarArray to support corresponding functions for tied
200           filehandles: untested, because I'm still running 5.00556 and Perl
201           is complaining about "tell() on unopened file".  Thanks to Graham
202           Barr for the suggestion.
203
204           Removed not-fully-blank lines from modules; these were causing lots
205           of POD-related warnings.  Thanks to Nicolas Joly for the
206           suggestion.
207
208       Version 1.219   (2001/02/23)
209           IO::Scalar objects can now be made sensitive to $/ .  Pains were
210           taken to keep the fast code fast while adding this feature.  Cheers
211           to Graham Barr for submitting his patch; jeers to me for losing his
212           email for 6 months.
213
214       Version 1.218   (2001/02/23)
215           IO::Scalar has a new sysseek() method.  Thanks again to Richard
216           Jones.
217
218           New "TO DO" section, because people who submit patches/ideas should
219           at least know that they're in the system... and that I won't lose
220           their stuff.  Please read it.
221
222           New entries in "AUTHOR".  Please read those too.
223
224       Version 1.216   (2000/09/28)
225           IO::Scalar and IO::ScalarArray now inherit from IO::Handle.  I
226           thought I'd remembered a problem with this ages ago, related to the
227           fact that these IO:: modules don't have "real" filehandles, but the
228           problem apparently isn't surfacing now.  If you suddenly encounter
229           Perl warnings during global destruction (especially if you're using
230           tied filehandles), then please let me know!  Thanks to B. K. Oxley
231           (binkley) for this.
232
233           Nasty bug fixed in IO::Scalar::write().  Apparently, the offset and
234           the number-of-bytes arguments were, for all practical purposes,
235           reversed.  You were okay if you did all your writing with print(),
236           but boy was this a stupid bug!  Thanks to Richard Jones for finding
237           this one.  For you, Rich, a double-length haiku:
238
239                  Newspaper headline
240                     typeset by dyslexic man
241                  loses urgency
242
243                  BABY EATS FISH is
244                     simply not equivalent
245                  to FISH EATS BABY
246
247           New sysread and syswrite methods for IO::Scalar.  Thanks again to
248           Richard Jones for this.
249
250       Version 1.215   (2000/09/05)
251           Added 'bool' overload to '""' overload, so object always evaluates
252           to true.  (Whew.  Glad I caught this before it went to CPAN.)
253
254       Version 1.214   (2000/09/03)
255           Evaluating an IO::Scalar in a string context now yields the
256           underlying string.  Thanks to B. K. Oxley (binkley) for this.
257
258       Version 1.213   (2000/08/16)
259           Minor documentation fixes.
260
261       Version 1.212   (2000/06/02)
262           Fixed IO::InnerFile incompatibility with Perl5.004.  Thanks to many
263           folks for reporting this.
264
265       Version 1.210   (2000/04/17)
266           Added flush() and other no-op methods.  Thanks to Doru Petrescu for
267           suggesting this.
268
269       Version 1.209   (2000/03/17)
270           Small bug fixes.
271
272       Version 1.208   (2000/03/14)
273           Incorporated a number of contributed patches and extensions, mostly
274           related to speed hacks, support for "offset", and WRITE/CLOSE
275           methods.  Thanks to Richard Jones, Doru Petrescu, and many others.
276
277       Version 1.206   (1999/04/18)
278           Added creation of ./testout when Makefile.PL is run.
279
280       Version 1.205   (1999/01/15)
281           Verified for Perl5.005.
282
283       Version 1.202   (1998/04/18)
284           New IO::WrapTie and IO::AtomicFile added.
285
286       Version 1.110
287           Added IO::WrapTie.
288
289       Version 1.107
290           Added IO::Lines, and made some bug fixes to IO::ScalarArray.  Also,
291           added getc().
292
293       Version 1.105
294           No real changes; just upgraded IO::Wrap to have a $VERSION string.
295

AUTHOR

297       Primary Maintainer
298           Dianne Skoll (dfs@roaringpenguin.com).
299
300       Original Author
301           Eryq (eryq@zeegee.com).  President, ZeeGee Software Inc
302           (http://www.zeegee.com).
303
304       Co-Authors
305           For all their bug reports and patch submissions, the following are
306           officially recognized:
307
308                Richard Jones
309                B. K. Oxley (binkley)
310                Doru Petrescu
311                Doug Wilson (for picking up the ball I dropped, and doing tie() right)
312
313       Go to http://www.zeegee.com for the latest downloads and on-line
314       documentation for this module.
315
316       Enjoy.  Yell if it breaks.
317

POD ERRORS

319       Hey! The above document had some coding errors, which are explained
320       below:
321
322       Around line 153:
323           Expected text after =item, not a bullet
324
325       Around line 157:
326           Expected text after =item, not a bullet
327
328       Around line 161:
329           Expected text after =item, not a bullet
330
331       Around line 165:
332           Expected text after =item, not a bullet
333
334       Around line 169:
335           Expected text after =item, not a bullet
336
337       Around line 173:
338           Expected text after =item, not a bullet
339
340       Around line 177:
341           Expected text after =item, not a bullet
342
343
344
345perl v5.28.0                      2015-04-22                    IO::Stringy(3)
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