http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=1133

lib:autouse

See the current Perl documentation for lib:autouse.

Here is our local, out-dated (pre-5.6) version:


autouse - postpone load of modules until a function is used



  use autouse 'Carp' => qw(carp croak);
  carp "this carp was predeclared and autoused ";



If the module Module is already loaded, then the declaration

  use autouse 'Module' => qw(func1 func2($;$) Module::func3);

is equivalent to

  use Module qw(func1 func2);

if Module defines func2() with prototype ($;$), and func1() and func3() have no prototypes. (At least if Module uses Exporter's import, otherwise it is a fatal error.)

If the module Module is not loaded yet, then the above declaration declares functions func1() and func2() in the current package, and declares a function Module::func3(). When these functions are called, they load the package Module if needed, and substitute themselves with the correct definitions.


WARNING

Using autouse will move important steps of your program's execution from compile time to runtime. This can

To alleviate the second problem (partially) it is advised to write your scripts like this:

  use Module;
  use autouse Module => qw(carp($) croak(&$));
  carp "this carp was predeclared and autoused ";

The first line ensures that the errors in your argument specification are found early. When you ship your application you should comment out the first line, since it makes the second one useless.


AUTHOR

Ilya Zakharevich (ilya@math.ohio-state.edu)


SEE ALSO

perl(1).