1Perl4::CoreLibs(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Perl4::CoreLibs(3)
2
6 Perl4::CoreLibs - libraries historically supplied with Perl 4
7
9 This is a collection of ".pl" files that were bundled with the Perl
10 core until core version 5.15.1. Relying on their presence in the core
11 distribution is deprecated; they should be acquired from this CPAN
12 distribution instead. From core version 5.13.3 until their removal,
13 the core versions of these libraries emit a deprecation warning when
14 loaded. The CPAN version does not emit such a warning.
15 The entire Perl 4 approach to libraries was largely superseded in Perl
17 5.000 by the system of module namespaces and ".pm" files. Most of the
18 libraries in this collection predate Perl 5.000, but a handful were
19 first introduced in that version. Functionally, most have been
20 directly superseded by modules in the Perl 5 style. These libraries
21 should not be used by new code. This collection exists to support old
22 Perl programs that predate satisfactory replacements.
23 Most of these libraries have not been substantially maintained in the
25 course of Perl 5 development. They are now very antiquated in style,
26 making no use of the language facilities introduced since Perl 4. They
27 should therefore not be used as programming examples.
28
30 The libraries in this collection are:
31 abbrev.pl
33 Build a dictionary of unambiguous abbreviations for a group of
34 words. Prefer Text::Abbrev.
35 assert.pl
37 Assertion checking with stack trace upon assertion failure.
38 bigfloat.pl
40 Arbitrary precision decimal floating point arithmetic. Prefer
41 Math::BigFloat.
42 bigint.pl
44 Arbitrary precision integer arithmetic. Prefer Math::BigInt.
45 bigrat.pl
47 Arbitrary precision rational arithmetic. Prefer Math::BigRat.
48 cacheout.pl
50 Manage output to a large number of files to avoid running out of
51 file descriptors.
52 chat2.pl
54 Framework for partial automation of communication with a remote
55 process over IP. Prefer IO::Socket::INET.
56 complete.pl
58 Interactive line input with word completion. Prefer
59 Term::Complete.
60 ctime.pl
62 One form of textual representation of time. Prefer
63 "scalar(localtime())" or "ctime" in POSIX.
64 dotsh.pl
66 Inhale shell variables set by a shell script.
67 exceptions.pl
69 String-based exception handling built on "eval" and "die". Prefer
70 Try::Tiny, TryCatch, or the core "try"/"catch" facility on Perl
71 5.33.7 or later.
72 fastcwd.pl
74 Determine current directory. Prefer Cwd.
75 find.pl
77 Historical interface for a way of searching for files. Prefer
78 File::Find.
79 finddepth.pl
81 Historical interface for a way of searching for files. Prefer
82 File::Find.
83 flush.pl
85 Flush an I/O handle's output buffer. Prefer "flush" in IO::Handle.
86 ftp.pl
88 File Transfer Protocol (FTP) over IP. Prefer Net::FTP.
89 getcwd.pl
91 Determine current directory. Prefer Cwd.
92 getopt.pl
94 Unix-like option processing with all option taking arguments.
95 Prefer Getopt::Std.
96 getopts.pl
98 Full Unix-like option processing. Prefer Getopt::Std.
99 hostname.pl
101 Determine host's hostname. Prefer Sys::Hostname.
102 importenv.pl
104 Import environment variables as Perl package variables.
105 look.pl
107 Data-based seek within regular file.
108 newgetopt.pl
110 GNU-like option processing. Prefer Getopt::Long.
111 open2.pl
113 Open a subprocess for both reading and writing. Prefer IPC::Open2.
114 open3.pl
116 Open a subprocess for reading, writing, and error handling. Prefer
117 IPC::Open3.
118 pwd.pl
120 Track changes of current directory in $ENV{PWD}.
121 shellwords.pl
123 Interpret shell quoting. Prefer Text::ParseWords.
124 stat.pl
126 Access fields of a stat structure by name. Prefer File::stat.
127 syslog.pl
129 Write to Unix system log. Prefer Sys::Syslog.
130 tainted.pl
132 Determine whether data is tainted. Prefer Taint::Util.
133 termcap.pl
135 Generate escape sequences to control arbitrary terminal. Prefer
136 Term::Cap.
137 timelocal.pl
139 Generate time number from broken-down time. Prefer Time::Local.
140 validate.pl
142 Check permissions on a group of files.
143
145 Known contributing authors for the libraries in this package are
146 Brandon S. Allbery, John Bazik, Tom Christiansen <tchrist@convex.com>,
147 Charles Collins, Joe Doupnik <JRD@CC.USU.EDU>, Marion Hakanson
148 <hakanson@cse.ogi.edu>, Waldemar Kebsch <kebsch.pad@nixpbe.UUCP>, Lee
149 McLoughlin <lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk>, <A.Macpherson@bnr.co.uk>, Randal L.
150 Schwartz <merlyn@stonehenge.com>, Aaron Sherman <asherman@fmrco.com>,
151 Wayne Thompson, Larry Wall <lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>, and Ilya
152 Zakharevich. (Most of these email addresses are probably out of date.)
153 Known contributing authors for the tests in this package are Tom
155 Christiansen <tchrist@convex.com>, Alexandr Ciornii (alexchorny at
156 gmail.com), Marc Horowitz <marc@mit.edu>, Dave Rolsky
157 <autarch@urth.org>, and David Sundstrom <sunds@asictest.sc.ti.com>.
158 Andrew Main (Zefram) <zefram@fysh.org> built the Perl4::CoreLibs
160 package.
161
163 Copyright (C) 1987-2009 Larry Wall et al
164 Copyright (C) 2010, 2011, 2017, 2023 Andrew Main (Zefram)
166 <zefram@fysh.org>
167
169 This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
170 under the same terms as Perl itself.
171perl v5.36.0 2023-03-14 Perl4::CoreLibs(3)