/usr/man/cat.3/Symbol.3.Z(/usr/man/cat.3/Symbol.3.Z)

NAME

       Symbol - manipulate Perl symbols and their names

SYNOPSIS

           use Symbol;

           $sym = gensym;
           open($sym, "filename");
           $_ = <$sym>;
           # etc.

           ungensym $sym;      # no effect

           # replace *FOO{IO} handle but not $FOO, %FOO, etc.
           *FOO = geniosym;

           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 sup-
       port anonymous globs, "Symbol::ungensym" is also provided.  But it
       doesn't do anything.

       "Symbol::geniosym" creates an anonymous IO handle.  This can be
       assigned into an existing glob without affecting the non-IO portions of
       the glob.

       "Symbol::qualify" turns unqualified symbol names into qualified vari-
       able names (e.g. "myvar" -> "MyPackage::myvar").  If it is given a sec-
       ond parameter, "qualify" 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 name, so you can use the result
       even if "use strict 'refs'" is in effect.

       "Symbol::delete_package" wipes out a whole package namespace.  Note
       this routine is not exported by default--you may want to import it
       explicitly.

perl v5.8.0                       2002-06-01                         Symbol(3)
See also Apache::Symbol(3):  man 3 Apache::Symbol
See also Encode::Symbol(3):  man 3 Encode::Symbol