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AutoLoader(3pm)                       Perl Programmers Reference Guide                       AutoLoader(3pm)



NAME
       AutoLoader - load subroutines only on demand

SYNOPSIS
           package Foo;
           use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';   # import the default AUTOLOAD subroutine

           package Bar;
           use AutoLoader;              # don't import AUTOLOAD, define our own
           sub AUTOLOAD {
               ...
               $AutoLoader::AUTOLOAD = "...";
               goto &AutoLoader::AUTOLOAD;
           }

DESCRIPTION
       The AutoLoader module works with the AutoSplit module and the "__END__" token to defer the loading of
       some subroutines until they are used rather than loading them all at once.

       To use AutoLoader, the author of a module has to place the definitions of subroutines to be
       autoloaded after an "__END__" token.  (See perldata.)  The AutoSplit module can then be run manually
       to extract the definitions into individual files auto/funcname.al.

       AutoLoader implements an AUTOLOAD subroutine.  When an undefined subroutine in is called in a client
       module of AutoLoader, AutoLoader's AUTOLOAD subroutine attempts to locate the subroutine in a file
       with a name related to the location of the file from which the client module was read.  As an exam-ple, example,
       ple, if POSIX.pm is located in /usr/local/lib/perl5/POSIX.pm, AutoLoader will look for perl subrou-tines subroutines
       tines POSIX in /usr/local/lib/perl5/auto/POSIX/*.al, where the ".al" file has the same name as the
       subroutine, sans package.  If such a file exists, AUTOLOAD will read and evaluate it, thus (presum-ably) (presumably)
       ably) defining the needed subroutine.  AUTOLOAD will then "goto" the newly defined subroutine.

       Once this process completes for a given function, it is defined, so future calls to the subroutine
       will bypass the AUTOLOAD mechanism.

       Subroutine Stubs

       In order for object method lookup and/or prototype checking to operate correctly even when methods
       have not yet been defined it is necessary to "forward declare" each subroutine (as in "sub NAME;").
       See "SYNOPSIS" in perlsub.  Such forward declaration creates "subroutine stubs", which are place
       holders with no code.

       The AutoSplit and AutoLoader modules automate the creation of forward declarations.  The AutoSplit
       module creates an 'index' file containing forward declarations of all the AutoSplit subroutines.
       When the AutoLoader module is 'use'd it loads these declarations into its callers package.

       Because of this mechanism it is important that AutoLoader is always "use"d and not "require"d.

       Using AutoLoader's AUTOLOAD Subroutine

       In order to use AutoLoader's AUTOLOAD subroutine you must explicitly import it:

           use AutoLoader 'AUTOLOAD';

       Overriding AutoLoader's AUTOLOAD Subroutine

       Some modules, mainly extensions, provide their own AUTOLOAD subroutines.  They typically need to
       check for some special cases (such as constants) and then fallback to AutoLoader's AUTOLOAD for the
       rest.

       Such modules should not import AutoLoader's AUTOLOAD subroutine.  Instead, they should define their
       own AUTOLOAD subroutines along these lines:

           use AutoLoader;
           use Carp;

           sub AUTOLOAD {
               my $sub = $AUTOLOAD;
               (my $constname = $sub) =~ s/.*:://;
               my $val = constant($constname, @_ ? $_[0] : 0);
               if ($! != 0) {
                   if ($! =~ /Invalid/ || $!{EINVAL}) {
                       $AutoLoader::AUTOLOAD = $sub;
                       goto &AutoLoader::AUTOLOAD;
                   }
                   else {
                       croak "Your vendor has not defined constant $constname";
                   }
               }
               *$sub = sub { $val }; # same as: eval "sub $sub { $val }";
               goto &$sub;
           }

       If any module's own AUTOLOAD subroutine has no need to fallback to the AutoLoader's AUTOLOAD subrou-tine subroutine
       tine (because it doesn't have any AutoSplit subroutines), then that module should not use AutoLoader
       at all.

       Package Lexicals

       Package lexicals declared with "my" in the main block of a package using AutoLoader will not be visi-ble visible
       ble to auto-loaded subroutines, due to the fact that the given scope ends at the "__END__" marker.  A
       module using such variables as package globals will not work properly under the AutoLoader.

       The "vars" pragma (see "vars" in perlmod) may be used in such situations as an alternative to explic-itly explicitly
       itly qualifying all globals with the package namespace.  Variables pre-declared with this pragma will
       be visible to any autoloaded routines (but will not be invisible outside the package, unfortunately).

       Not Using AutoLoader

       You can stop using AutoLoader by simply

               no AutoLoader;

       AutoLoader vs. SelfLoader

       The AutoLoader is similar in purpose to SelfLoader: both delay the loading of subroutines.

       SelfLoader uses the "__DATA__" marker rather than "__END__".  While this avoids the use of a hierar-chy hierarchy
       chy of disk files and the associated open/close for each routine loaded, SelfLoader suffers a startup
       speed disadvantage in the one-time parsing of the lines after "__DATA__", after which routines are
       cached.  SelfLoader can also handle multiple packages in a file.

       AutoLoader only reads code as it is requested, and in many cases should be faster, but requires a
       mechanism like AutoSplit be used to create the individual files.  ExtUtils::MakeMaker will invoke
       AutoSplit automatically if AutoLoader is used in a module source file.

CAVEATS
       AutoLoaders prior to Perl 5.002 had a slightly different interface.  Any old modules which use
       AutoLoader should be changed to the new calling style.  Typically this just means changing a require
       to a use, adding the explicit 'AUTOLOAD' import if needed, and removing AutoLoader from @ISA.

       On systems with restrictions on file name length, the file corresponding to a subroutine may have a
       shorter name that the routine itself.  This can lead to conflicting file names.  The AutoSplit pack-age package
       age warns of these potential conflicts when used to split a module.

       AutoLoader may fail to find the autosplit files (or even find the wrong ones) in cases where @INC
       contains relative paths, and the program does "chdir".

SEE ALSO
       SelfLoader - an autoloader that doesn't use external files.

AUTHOR
       "AutoLoader" is maintained by the perl5-porters. Please direct any questions to the canonical mailing
       list. Anything that is applicable to the CPAN release can be sent to its maintainer, though.

       Author and Maintainer: The Perl5-Porters <perl5-porters@perl.org>

       Maintainer of the CPAN release: Steffen Mueller <smueller@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
       This package has been part of the perl core since the first release of perl5. It has been released
       separately to CPAN so older installations can benefit from bug fixes.

       This package has the same copyright and license as the perl core:

                    Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
               2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
               by Larry Wall and others

                                   All rights reserved.

           This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
           it under the terms of either:

               a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
               Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any
               later version, or

               b) the "Artistic License" which comes with this Kit.

           This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
           but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
           MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See either
           the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License for more details.

           You should have received a copy of the Artistic License with this
           Kit, in the file named "Artistic".  If not, I'll be glad to provide one.

           You should also have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
           along with this program in the file named "Copying". If not, write to the
           Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
           02111-1307, USA or visit their web page on the internet at
           http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.

           For those of you that choose to use the GNU General Public License,
           my interpretation of the GNU General Public License is that no Perl
           script falls under the terms of the GPL unless you explicitly put
           said script under the terms of the GPL yourself.  Furthermore, any
           object code linked with perl does not automatically fall under the
           terms of the GPL, provided such object code only adds definitions
           of subroutines and variables, and does not otherwise impair the
           resulting interpreter from executing any standard Perl script.  I
           consider linking in C subroutines in this manner to be the moral
           equivalent of defining subroutines in the Perl language itself.  You
           may sell such an object file as proprietary provided that you provide
           or offer to provide the Perl source, as specified by the GNU General
           Public License.  (This is merely an alternate way of specifying input
           to the program.)  You may also sell a binary produced by the dumping of
           a running Perl script that belongs to you, provided that you provide or
           offer to provide the Perl source as specified by the GPL.  (The
           fact that a Perl interpreter and your code are in the same binary file
           is, in this case, a form of mere aggregation.)  This is my interpretation
           of the GPL.  If you still have concerns or difficulties understanding
           my intent, feel free to contact me.  Of course, the Artistic License
           spells all this out for your protection, so you may prefer to use that.



perl v5.8.9                                      2001-09-21                                  AutoLoader(3pm)