1Sub::Delete(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Sub::Delete(3)
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6 Sub::Delete - Perl module enabling one to delete subroutines
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9 1.00002
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12 use Sub::Delete;
13 sub foo {}
14 delete_sub 'foo';
15 eval 'foo();1' or die; # dies
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18 This module provides one function, "delete_sub", that deletes the
19 subroutine whose name is passed to it. (To load the module without
20 importing the function, write "use Sub::Delete();".)
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22 This does more than simply undefine the subroutine in the manner of
23 "undef &foo", which leaves a stub that can trigger AUTOLOAD (and,
24 consequently, won't work for deleting methods). The subroutine is
25 completely obliterated from the symbol table (though there may be
26 references to it elsewhere, including in compiled code).
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29 This module requires perl 5.8.3 or higher.
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32 If you take a reference to a glob containing a subroutine, and then
33 delete the subroutine with "delete_sub", you will find that the glob
34 you referenced still has a subroutine in it. This is because
35 "delete_sub" removes a glob, replaces it with another, and then copies
36 the contents of the old glob into the new one, except for the "CODE"
37 slot. (This is nearly impossible to fix without breaking
38 constant::lexical.)
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41 If you find any bugs, please report them to the author via e-mail.
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44 Copyright (C) 2008-10 Father Chrysostomos (sprout at, um, cpan dot org)
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46 This program is free software; you may redistribute or modify it (or
47 both) under the same terms as perl.
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50 perltodo, which has "delete &sub" listed as a possible future feature
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52 Symbol::Glob and Symbol::Util, both of which predate this module (but I
53 only discovered them recently), and which allow one to delete any
54 arbitrary slot from a glob. Neither of them takes perl 5.10 constants
55 into account, however. They also both differ from this module, in that
56 a subroutine referenced in compiled code can no longer be called if
57 deleted from its glob. The entire glob must be replaced (which this
58 module does).
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62perl v5.34.0 2021-07-22 Sub::Delete(3)