The docs say "In the first form," eval EXPR, "the return value of EXPR is parsed and executed as if it were a little Perl program."

Perl programs are put into main until a package statement is encountered, so the documentation is consistent with the behaviour (although an explicit statement about this behaviour would be favourable).

Which means the following is wrong?

sub moo { print("moooooain\n"); }
package cow;
sub moo { print("moooOoooOOoooo\n"); }  # <--- prints this
eval 'moo();';
[download]

There's definitely a bug, since __PACKAGE__ does not agree with the function getting called.

do EXPR is consistent with eval EXPR, as stated in do's docs:

> echo "print(__PACKAGE__, $/);" > script.pl
> perl -e "package foo; do 'script.pl';"
main
[download]

Of course, eval EXPR is inconsistent with eval BLOCK which "parsed--and executed within the context of the current Perl program".

(Following up on a brief CB /msg exchange, that may be interesting to other monks.)

Speaking of documentation only here: I thought "executed within the context of the current Perl program" ought to have trumped eval EXPR's move to main, but as ikegami notes, the statement about context applies only to eval BLOCK.

But eval BLOCK of course does share some (a lot of) state with the main program; there's no new perl interpreter constructed, and the following does change the value of $x in the main program:

perl -le '$x = 42; eval q($x = 6*9); print $x'    # prints "54"

The first thing that needs fixing in this case appears to be the docs.

Markus

[roo@sike:~ 747] > perl -le 'package foo ;print eval('__PACKAGE__');'
foo
[download]

You made a classic shell quoting error - use double quotes for the internal quotes:

perl -le 'package foo ;print eval("__PACKAGE__");'
[download]

or, when your shell only gives you one flavour of quote, use Perls superior quoting facilities:

perl -le 'package foo ;print eval(q(__PACKAGE__));'
[download]

Eek, you're right; the unquoted __PACKAGE__ of course comes from the un-evaled compile-time pass, and hence does say "foo".

I can't find mention of this behavior in the docs (eval is where I'd like it to be), so yes, I'd consider this a bug.

this is odd...

hal:~> cat test.pl
package foo ;
print eval('__PACKAGE__');
hal:~> perl -l test.pl
main
hal:~> perl -le 'package foo ;print eval('__PACKAGE__');'
foo
[download]

Update: d'oh! ... that's what i get for trusting someone else's test case without looking at it closely.

what makes the -e version "work" is definitely the quotes, perl is seeing it as...

package foo ;print eval(__PACKAGE__);
[download]

...in which case the __PACKAGE__ gets interpolated before the eval.