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perlvar(1) - phpMan

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PERLVAR(1)                       Perl Programmers Reference Guide                      PERLVAR(1)



NAME
       perlvar - Perl predefined variables

DESCRIPTION
   The Syntax of Variable Names
       Variable names in Perl can have several formats.  Usually, they must begin with a letter
       or underscore, in which case they can be arbitrarily long (up to an internal limit of 251
       characters) and may contain letters, digits, underscores, or the special sequence "::" or
       "'".  In this case, the part before the last "::" or "'" is taken to be a package
       qualifier; see perlmod.

       Perl variable names may also be a sequence of digits or a single punctuation or control
       character (with the literal control character form deprecated).  These names are all
       reserved for special uses by Perl; for example, the all-digits names are used to hold data
       captured by backreferences after a regular expression match.  Perl has a special syntax
       for the single-control-character names: It understands "^X" (caret "X") to mean the
       control-"X" character.  For example, the notation $^W (dollar-sign caret "W") is the
       scalar variable whose name is the single character control-"W".  This is better than
       typing a literal control-"W" into your program.

       Since Perl v5.6.0, Perl variable names may be alphanumeric strings that begin with control
       characters (or better yet, a caret).  These variables must be written in the form
       "${^Foo}"; the braces are not optional.  "${^Foo}" denotes the scalar variable whose name
       is a control-"F" followed by two "o"'s.  These variables are reserved for future special
       uses by Perl, except for the ones that begin with "^_" (control-underscore or caret-
       underscore).  No control-character name that begins with "^_" will acquire a special
       meaning in any future version of Perl; such names may therefore be used safely in
       programs.  $^_ itself, however, is reserved.

       Perl identifiers that begin with digits, control characters, or punctuation characters are
       exempt from the effects of the "package" declaration and are always forced to be in
       package "main"; they are also exempt from "strict 'vars'" errors.  A few other names are
       also exempt in these ways:

           ENV      STDIN
           INC      STDOUT
           ARGV     STDERR
           ARGVOUT
           SIG

       In particular, the special "${^_XYZ}" variables are always taken to be in package "main",
       regardless of any "package" declarations presently in scope.

SPECIAL VARIABLES
       The following names have special meaning to Perl.  Most punctuation names have reasonable
       mnemonics, or analogs in the shells.  Nevertheless, if you wish to use long variable
       names, you need only say:

           use English;

       at the top of your program.  This aliases all the short names to the long names in the
       current package.  Some even have medium names, generally borrowed from awk.  For more
       info, please see English.

       Before you continue, note the sort order for variables.  In general, we first list the
       variables in case-insensitive, almost-lexigraphical order (ignoring the "{" or "^"
       preceding words, as in "${^UNICODE}" or $^T), although $_ and @_ move up to the top of the
       pile.  For variables with the same identifier, we list it in order of scalar, array, hash,
       and bareword.

   General Variables
       $ARG
       $_      The default input and pattern-searching space.  The following pairs are
               equivalent:

                   while (<>) {...}    # equivalent only in while!
                   while (defined($_ = <>)) {...}

                   /^Subject:/
                   $_ =~ /^Subject:/

                   tr/a-z/A-Z/
                   $_ =~ tr/a-z/A-Z/

                   chomp
                   chomp($_)

               Here are the places where Perl will assume $_ even if you don't use it:

               ·  The following functions use $_ as a default argument:

                  abs, alarm, chomp, chop, chr, chroot, cos, defined, eval, evalbytes, exp, fc,
                  glob, hex, int, lc, lcfirst, length, log, lstat, mkdir, oct, ord, pos, print,
                  printf, quotemeta, readlink, readpipe, ref, require, reverse (in scalar context
                  only), rmdir, say, sin, split (for its second argument), sqrt, stat, study, uc,
                  ucfirst, unlink, unpack.

               ·  All file tests ("-f", "-d") except for "-t", which defaults to STDIN.  See "-X"
                  in perlfunc

               ·  The pattern matching operations "m//", "s///" and "tr///" (aka "y///") when
                  used without an "=~" operator.

               ·  The default iterator variable in a "foreach" loop if no other variable is
                  supplied.

               ·  The implicit iterator variable in the "grep()" and "map()" functions.

               ·  The implicit variable of "given()".

               ·  The default place to put the next value or input record when a "<FH>",
                  "readline", "readdir" or "each" operation's result is tested by itself as the
                  sole criterion of a "while" test.  Outside a "while" test, this will not
                  happen.

               $_ is by default a global variable.  However, as of perl v5.10.0, you can use a
               lexical version of $_ by declaring it in a file or in a block with "my".
               Moreover, declaring "our $_" restores the global $_ in the current scope.  Though
               this seemed like a good idea at the time it was introduced, lexical $_ actually
               causes more problems than it solves.  If you call a function that expects to be
               passed information via $_, it may or may not work, depending on how the function
               is written, there not being any easy way to solve this.  Just avoid lexical $_,
               unless you are feeling particularly masochistic.  For this reason lexical $_ is
               still experimental and will produce a warning unless warnings have been disabled.
               As with other experimental features, the behavior of lexical $_ is subject to
               change without notice, including change into a fatal error.

               Mnemonic: underline is understood in certain operations.

       @ARG
       @_      Within a subroutine the array @_ contains the parameters passed to that
               subroutine.  Inside a subroutine, @_ is the default array for the array operators
               "push", "pop", "shift", and "unshift".

               See perlsub.

       $LIST_SEPARATOR
       $"      When an array or an array slice is interpolated into a double-quoted string or a
               similar context such as "/.../", its elements are separated by this value.
               Default is a space.  For example, this:

                   print "The array is: @array\n";

               is equivalent to this:

                   print "The array is: " . join($", @array) . "\n";

               Mnemonic: works in double-quoted context.

       $PROCESS_ID
       $PID
       $$      The process number of the Perl running this script.  Though you can set this
               variable, doing so is generally discouraged, although it can be invaluable for
               some testing purposes.  It will be reset automatically across "fork()" calls.

               Note for Linux and Debian GNU/kFreeBSD users: Before Perl v5.16.0 perl would
               emulate POSIX semantics on Linux systems using LinuxThreads, a partial
               implementation of POSIX Threads that has since been superseded by the Native POSIX
               Thread Library (NPTL).

               LinuxThreads is now obsolete on Linux, and caching "getpid()" like this made
               embedding perl unnecessarily complex (since you'd have to manually update the
               value of $$), so now $$ and "getppid()" will always return the same values as the
               underlying C library.

               Debian GNU/kFreeBSD systems also used LinuxThreads up until and including the 6.0
               release, but after that moved to FreeBSD thread semantics, which are POSIX-like.

               To see if your system is affected by this discrepancy check if "getconf
               GNU_LIBPTHREAD_VERSION | grep -q NPTL" returns a false value.  NTPL threads
               preserve the POSIX semantics.

               Mnemonic: same as shells.

       $PROGRAM_NAME
       $0      Contains the name of the program being executed.

               On some (but not all) operating systems assigning to $0 modifies the argument area
               that the "ps" program sees.  On some platforms you may have to use special "ps"
               options or a different "ps" to see the changes.  Modifying the $0 is more useful
               as a way of indicating the current program state than it is for hiding the program
               you're running.

               Note that there are platform-specific limitations on the maximum length of $0.  In
               the most extreme case it may be limited to the space occupied by the original $0.

               In some platforms there may be arbitrary amount of padding, for example space
               characters, after the modified name as shown by "ps".  In some platforms this
               padding may extend all the way to the original length of the argument area, no
               matter what you do (this is the case for example with Linux 2.2).

               Note for BSD users: setting $0 does not completely remove "perl" from the ps(1)
               output.  For example, setting $0 to "foobar" may result in "perl: foobar (perl)"
               (whether both the "perl: " prefix and the " (perl)" suffix are shown depends on
               your exact BSD variant and version).  This is an operating system feature, Perl
               cannot help it.

               In multithreaded scripts Perl coordinates the threads so that any thread may
               modify its copy of the $0 and the change becomes visible to ps(1) (assuming the
               operating system plays along).  Note that the view of $0 the other threads have
               will not change since they have their own copies of it.

               If the program has been given to perl via the switches "-e" or "-E", $0 will
               contain the string "-e".

               On Linux as of perl v5.14.0 the legacy process name will be set with prctl(2), in
               addition to altering the POSIX name via "argv[0]" as perl has done since version
               4.000.  Now system utilities that read the legacy process name such as ps, top and
               killall will recognize the name you set when assigning to $0.  The string you
               supply will be cut off at 16 bytes, this is a limitation imposed by Linux.

               Mnemonic: same as sh and ksh.

       $REAL_GROUP_ID
       $GID
       $(      The real gid of this process.  If you are on a machine that supports membership in
               multiple groups simultaneously, gives a space separated list of groups you are in.
               The first number is the one returned by "getgid()", and the subsequent ones by
               "getgroups()", one of which may be the same as the first number.

               However, a value assigned to $( must be a single number used to set the real gid.
               So the value given by $( should not be assigned back to $( without being forced
               numeric, such as by adding zero.  Note that this is different to the effective gid
               ($)) which does take a list.

               You can change both the real gid and the effective gid at the same time by using
               "POSIX::setgid()".  Changes to $( require a check to $!  to detect any possible
               errors after an attempted change.

               Mnemonic: parentheses are used to group things.  The real gid is the group you
               left, if you're running setgid.

       $EFFECTIVE_GROUP_ID
       $EGID
       $)      The effective gid of this process.  If you are on a machine that supports
               membership in multiple groups simultaneously, gives a space separated list of
               groups you are in.  The first number is the one returned by "getegid()", and the
               subsequent ones by "getgroups()", one of which may be the same as the first
               number.

               Similarly, a value assigned to $) must also be a space-separated list of numbers.
               The first number sets the effective gid, and the rest (if any) are passed to
               "setgroups()".  To get the effect of an empty list for "setgroups()", just repeat
               the new effective gid; that is, to force an effective gid of 5 and an effectively
               empty "setgroups()" list, say " $) = "5 5" ".

               You can change both the effective gid and the real gid at the same time by using
               "POSIX::setgid()" (use only a single numeric argument).  Changes to $) require a
               check to $! to detect any possible errors after an attempted change.

               $<, $>, $( and $) can be set only on machines that support the corresponding
               set[re][ug]id() routine.  $( and $) can be swapped only on machines supporting
               "setregid()".

               Mnemonic: parentheses are used to group things.  The effective gid is the group
               that's right for you, if you're running setgid.

       $REAL_USER_ID
       $UID
       $<      The real uid of this process.  You can change both the real uid and the effective
               uid at the same time by using "POSIX::setuid()".  Since changes to $< require a
               system call, check $! after a change attempt to detect any possible errors.

               Mnemonic: it's the uid you came from, if you're running setuid.

       $EFFECTIVE_USER_ID
       $EUID
       $>      The effective uid of this process.  For example:

                   $< = $>;            # set real to effective uid
                   ($<,$>) = ($>,$<);  # swap real and effective uids

               You can change both the effective uid and the real uid at the same time by using
               "POSIX::setuid()".  Changes to $> require a check to $! to detect any possible
               errors after an attempted change.

               $< and $> can be swapped only on machines supporting "setreuid()".

               Mnemonic: it's the uid you went to, if you're running setuid.

       $SUBSCRIPT_SEPARATOR
       $SUBSEP
       $;      The subscript separator for multidimensional array emulation.  If you refer to a
               hash element as

                   $foo{$x,$y,$z}

               it really means

                   $foo{join($;, $x, $y, $z)}

               But don't put

                   @foo{$x,$y,$z}      # a slice--note the @

               which means

                   ($foo{$x},$foo{$y},$foo{$z})

               Default is "\034", the same as SUBSEP in awk.  If your keys contain binary data
               there might not be any safe value for $;.

               Consider using "real" multidimensional arrays as described in perllol.

               Mnemonic: comma (the syntactic subscript separator) is a semi-semicolon.

       $a
       $b      Special package variables when using "sort()", see "sort" in perlfunc.  Because of
               this specialness $a and $b don't need to be declared (using "use vars", or
               "our()") even when using the "strict 'vars'" pragma.  Don't lexicalize them with
               "my $a" or "my $b" if you want to be able to use them in the "sort()" comparison
               block or function.

       %ENV    The hash %ENV contains your current environment.  Setting a value in "ENV" changes
               the environment for any child processes you subsequently "fork()" off.

               As of v5.18.0, both keys and values stored in %ENV are stringified.

                   my $foo = 1;
                   $ENV{'bar'} = \$foo;
                   if( ref $ENV{'bar'} ) {
                       say "Pre 5.18.0 Behaviour";
                   } else {
                       say "Post 5.18.0 Behaviour";
                   }

               Previously, only child processes received stringified values:

                   my $foo = 1;
                   $ENV{'bar'} = \$foo;

                   # Always printed 'non ref'
                   system($^X, '-e',
                          q/print ( ref $ENV{'bar'}  ? 'ref' : 'non ref' ) /);

               This happens because you can't really share arbitrary data structures with foreign
               processes.

       $SYSTEM_FD_MAX
       $^F     The maximum system file descriptor, ordinarily 2.  System file descriptors are
               passed to "exec()"ed processes, while higher file descriptors are not.  Also,
               during an "open()", system file descriptors are preserved even if the "open()"
               fails (ordinary file descriptors are closed before the "open()" is attempted).
               The close-on-exec status of a file descriptor will be decided according to the
               value of $^F when the corresponding file, pipe, or socket was opened, not the time
               of the "exec()".

       @F      The array @F contains the fields of each line read in when autosplit mode is
               turned on.  See perlrun for the -a switch.  This array is package-specific, and
               must be declared or given a full package name if not in package main when running
               under "strict 'vars'".

       @INC    The array @INC contains the list of places that the "do EXPR", "require", or "use"
               constructs look for their library files.  It initially consists of the arguments
               to any -I command-line switches, followed by the default Perl library, probably
               /usr/local/lib/perl, followed by ".", to represent the current directory.  ("."
               will not be appended if taint checks are enabled, either by "-T" or by "-t".)  If
               you need to modify this at runtime, you should use the "use lib" pragma to get the
               machine-dependent library properly loaded also:

                   use lib '/mypath/libdir/';
                   use SomeMod;

               You can also insert hooks into the file inclusion system by putting Perl code
               directly into @INC.  Those hooks may be subroutine references, array references or
               blessed objects.  See "require" in perlfunc for details.

       %INC    The hash %INC contains entries for each filename included via the "do", "require",
               or "use" operators.  The key is the filename you specified (with module names
               converted to pathnames), and the value is the location of the file found.  The
               "require" operator uses this hash to determine whether a particular file has
               already been included.

               If the file was loaded via a hook (e.g. a subroutine reference, see "require" in
               perlfunc for a description of these hooks), this hook is by default inserted into
               %INC in place of a filename.  Note, however, that the hook may have set the %INC
               entry by itself to provide some more specific info.

       $INPLACE_EDIT
       $^I     The current value of the inplace-edit extension.  Use "undef" to disable inplace
               editing.

               Mnemonic: value of -i switch.

       $^M     By default, running out of memory is an untrappable, fatal error.  However, if
               suitably built, Perl can use the contents of $^M as an emergency memory pool after
               "die()"ing.  Suppose that your Perl were compiled with "-DPERL_EMERGENCY_SBRK" and
               used Perl's malloc.  Then

                   $^M = 'a' x (1 << 16);

               would allocate a 64K buffer for use in an emergency.  See the INSTALL file in the
               Perl distribution for information on how to add custom C compilation flags when
               compiling perl.  To discourage casual use of this advanced feature, there is no
               English long name for this variable.

               This variable was added in Perl 5.004.

       $OSNAME
       $^O     The name of the operating system under which this copy of Perl was built, as
               determined during the configuration process.  For examples see "PLATFORMS" in
               perlport.

               The value is identical to $Config{'osname'}.  See also Config and the -V command-
               line switch documented in perlrun.

               In Windows platforms, $^O is not very helpful: since it is always "MSWin32", it
               doesn't tell the difference between 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/CE/.NET.  Use
               "Win32::GetOSName()" or Win32::GetOSVersion() (see Win32 and perlport) to
               distinguish between the variants.

               This variable was added in Perl 5.003.

       %SIG    The hash %SIG contains signal handlers for signals.  For example:

                   sub handler {   # 1st argument is signal name
                       my($sig) = @_;
                       print "Caught a SIG$sig--shutting down\n";
                       close(LOG);
                       exit(0);
                       }

                   $SIG{'INT'}  = \&handler;
                   $SIG{'QUIT'} = \&handler;
                   ...
                   $SIG{'INT'}  = 'DEFAULT';   # restore default action
                   $SIG{'QUIT'} = 'IGNORE';    # ignore SIGQUIT

               Using a value of 'IGNORE' usually has the effect of ignoring the signal, except
               for the "CHLD" signal.  See perlipc for more about this special case.

               Here are some other examples:

                   $SIG{"PIPE"} = "Plumber";   # assumes main::Plumber (not
                                               # recommended)
                   $SIG{"PIPE"} = \&Plumber;   # just fine; assume current
                                               # Plumber
                   $SIG{"PIPE"} = *Plumber;    # somewhat esoteric
                   $SIG{"PIPE"} = Plumber();   # oops, what did Plumber()
                                               # return??

               Be sure not to use a bareword as the name of a signal handler, lest you
               inadvertently call it.

               If your system has the "sigaction()" function then signal handlers are installed
               using it.  This means you get reliable signal handling.

               The default delivery policy of signals changed in Perl v5.8.0 from immediate (also
               known as "unsafe") to deferred, also known as "safe signals".  See perlipc for
               more information.

               Certain internal hooks can be also set using the %SIG hash.  The routine indicated
               by $SIG{__WARN__} is called when a warning message is about to be printed.  The
               warning message is passed as the first argument.  The presence of a "__WARN__"
               hook causes the ordinary printing of warnings to "STDERR" to be suppressed.  You
               can use this to save warnings in a variable, or turn warnings into fatal errors,
               like this:

                   local $SIG{__WARN__} = sub { die $_[0] };
                   eval $proggie;

               As the 'IGNORE' hook is not supported by "__WARN__", you can disable warnings
               using the empty subroutine:

                   local $SIG{__WARN__} = sub {};

               The routine indicated by $SIG{__DIE__} is called when a fatal exception is about
               to be thrown.  The error message is passed as the first argument.  When a
               "__DIE__" hook routine returns, the exception processing continues as it would
               have in the absence of the hook, unless the hook routine itself exits via a "goto
               &sub", a loop exit, or a "die()".  The "__DIE__" handler is explicitly disabled
               during the call, so that you can die from a "__DIE__" handler.  Similarly for
               "__WARN__".

               Due to an implementation glitch, the $SIG{__DIE__} hook is called even inside an
               "eval()".  Do not use this to rewrite a pending exception in $@, or as a bizarre
               substitute for overriding "CORE::GLOBAL::die()".  This strange action at a
               distance may be fixed in a future release so that $SIG{__DIE__} is only called if
               your program is about to exit, as was the original intent.  Any other use is
               deprecated.

               "__DIE__"/"__WARN__" handlers are very special in one respect: they may be called
               to report (probable) errors found by the parser.  In such a case the parser may be
               in inconsistent state, so any attempt to evaluate Perl code from such a handler
               will probably result in a segfault.  This means that warnings or errors that
               result from parsing Perl should be used with extreme caution, like this:

                   require Carp if defined $^S;
                   Carp::confess("Something wrong") if defined &Carp::confess;
                   die "Something wrong, but could not load Carp to give "
                     . "backtrace...\n\t"
                     . "To see backtrace try starting Perl with -MCarp switch";

               Here the first line will load "Carp" unless it is the parser who called the
               handler.  The second line will print backtrace and die if "Carp" was available.
               The third line will be executed only if "Carp" was not available.

               Having to even think about the $^S variable in your exception handlers is simply
               wrong.  $SIG{__DIE__} as currently implemented invites grievous and difficult to
               track down errors.  Avoid it and use an "END{}" or CORE::GLOBAL::die override
               instead.

               See "die" in perlfunc, "warn" in perlfunc, "eval" in perlfunc, and warnings for
               additional information.

       $BASETIME
       $^T     The time at which the program began running, in seconds since the epoch (beginning
               of 1970).  The values returned by the -M, -A, and -C filetests are based on this
               value.

       $PERL_VERSION
       $^V     The revision, version, and subversion of the Perl interpreter, represented as a
               "version" object.

               This variable first appeared in perl v5.6.0; earlier versions of perl will see an
               undefined value.  Before perl v5.10.0 $^V was represented as a v-string.

               $^V can be used to determine whether the Perl interpreter executing a script is in
               the right range of versions.  For example:

                   warn "Hashes not randomized!\n" if !$^V or $^V lt v5.8.1

               To convert $^V into its string representation use "sprintf()"'s "%vd" conversion:

                   printf "version is v%vd\n", $^V;  # Perl's version

               See the documentation of "use VERSION" and "require VERSION" for a convenient way
               to fail if the running Perl interpreter is too old.

               See also $] for an older representation of the Perl version.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.6.0.

               Mnemonic: use ^V for Version Control.

       ${^WIN32_SLOPPY_STAT}
               If this variable is set to a true value, then "stat()" on Windows will not try to
               open the file.  This means that the link count cannot be determined and file
               attributes may be out of date if additional hardlinks to the file exist.  On the
               other hand, not opening the file is considerably faster, especially for files on
               network drives.

               This variable could be set in the sitecustomize.pl file to configure the local
               Perl installation to use "sloppy" "stat()" by default.  See the documentation for
               -f in perlrun for more information about site customization.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.10.0.

       $EXECUTABLE_NAME
       $^X     The name used to execute the current copy of Perl, from C's "argv[0]" or (where
               supported) /proc/self/exe.

               Depending on the host operating system, the value of $^X may be a relative or
               absolute pathname of the perl program file, or may be the string used to invoke
               perl but not the pathname of the perl program file.  Also, most operating systems
               permit invoking programs that are not in the PATH environment variable, so there
               is no guarantee that the value of $^X is in PATH.  For VMS, the value may or may
               not include a version number.

               You usually can use the value of $^X to re-invoke an independent copy of the same
               perl that is currently running, e.g.,

                   @first_run = `$^X -le "print int rand 100 for 1..100"`;

               But recall that not all operating systems support forking or capturing of the
               output of commands, so this complex statement may not be portable.

               It is not safe to use the value of $^X as a path name of a file, as some operating
               systems that have a mandatory suffix on executable files do not require use of the
               suffix when invoking a command.  To convert the value of $^X to a path name, use
               the following statements:

                   # Build up a set of file names (not command names).
                   use Config;
                   my $this_perl = $^X;
                   if ($^O ne 'VMS') {
                       $this_perl .= $Config{_exe}
                         unless $this_perl =~ m/$Config{_exe}$/i;
                       }

               Because many operating systems permit anyone with read access to the Perl program
               file to make a copy of it, patch the copy, and then execute the copy, the
               security-conscious Perl programmer should take care to invoke the installed copy
               of perl, not the copy referenced by $^X.  The following statements accomplish this
               goal, and produce a pathname that can be invoked as a command or referenced as a
               file.

                   use Config;
                   my $secure_perl_path = $Config{perlpath};
                   if ($^O ne 'VMS') {
                       $secure_perl_path .= $Config{_exe}
                           unless $secure_perl_path =~ m/$Config{_exe}$/i;
                       }

   Variables related to regular expressions
       Most of the special variables related to regular expressions are side effects.  Perl sets
       these variables when it has a successful match, so you should check the match result
       before using them.  For instance:

           if( /P(A)TT(ER)N/ ) {
               print "I found $1 and $2\n";
               }

       These variables are read-only and dynamically-scoped, unless we note otherwise.

       The dynamic nature of the regular expression variables means that their value is limited
       to the block that they are in, as demonstrated by this bit of code:

           my $outer = 'Wallace and Grommit';
           my $inner = 'Mutt and Jeff';

           my $pattern = qr/(\S+) and (\S+)/;

           sub show_n { print "\$1 is $1; \$2 is $2\n" }

           {
           OUTER:
               show_n() if $outer =~ m/$pattern/;

               INNER: {
                   show_n() if $inner =~ m/$pattern/;
                   }

               show_n();
           }

       The output shows that while in the "OUTER" block, the values of $1 and $2 are from the
       match against $outer.  Inside the "INNER" block, the values of $1 and $2 are from the
       match against $inner, but only until the end of the block (i.e. the dynamic scope).  After
       the "INNER" block completes, the values of $1 and $2 return to the values for the match
       against $outer even though we have not made another match:

           $1 is Wallace; $2 is Grommit
           $1 is Mutt; $2 is Jeff
           $1 is Wallace; $2 is Grommit

       Performance issues

       Traditionally in Perl, any use of any of the three variables  "$`", $& or "$'" (or their
       "use English" equivalents) anywhere in the code, caused all subsequent successful pattern
       matches to make a copy of the matched string, in case the code might subsequently access
       one of those variables.  This imposed a considerable performance penalty across the whole
       program, so generally the use of these variables has been discouraged.

       In Perl 5.6.0 the "@-" and "@+" dynamic arrays were introduced that supply the indices of
       successful matches. So you could for example do this:

           $str =~ /pattern/;

           print $`, $&, $'; # bad: perfomance hit

           print             # good: no perfomance hit
               substr($str, 0,     $-[0]),
               substr($str, $-[0], $+[0]-$-[0]),
               substr($str, $+[0]);

       In Perl 5.10.0 the "/p" match operator flag and the "${^PREMATCH}", "${^MATCH}", and
       "${^POSTMATCH}" variables were introduced, that allowed you to suffer the penalties only
       on patterns marked with "/p".

       In Perl 5.18.0 onwards, perl started noting the presence of each of the three variables
       separately, and only copied that part of the string required; so in

           $`; $&; "abcdefgh" =~ /d/

       perl would only copy the "abcd" part of the string. That could make a big difference in
       something like

           $str = 'x' x 1_000_000;
           $&; # whoops
           $str =~ /x/g # one char copied a million times, not a million chars

       In Perl 5.20.0 a new copy-on-write system was enabled by default, which finally fixes all
       performance issues with these three variables, and makes them safe to use anywhere.

       The "Devel::NYTProf" and "Devel::FindAmpersand" modules can help you find uses of these
       problematic match variables in your code.

       $<digits> ($1, $2, ...)
               Contains the subpattern from the corresponding set of capturing parentheses from
               the last successful pattern match, not counting patterns matched in nested blocks
               that have been exited already.

               These variables are read-only and dynamically-scoped.

               Mnemonic: like \digits.

       $MATCH
       $&      The string matched by the last successful pattern match (not counting any matches
               hidden within a BLOCK or "eval()" enclosed by the current BLOCK).

               See "Performance issues" above for the serious performance implications of using
               this variable (even once) in your code.

               This variable is read-only and dynamically-scoped.

               Mnemonic: like "&" in some editors.

       ${^MATCH}
               This is similar to $& ($MATCH) except that it does not incur the performance
               penalty associated with that variable.

               See "Performance issues" above.

               In Perl v5.18 and earlier, it is only guaranteed to return a defined value when
               the pattern was compiled or executed with the "/p" modifier.  In Perl v5.20, the
               "/p" modifier does nothing, so "${^MATCH}" does the same thing as $MATCH.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.10.0.

               This variable is read-only and dynamically-scoped.

       $PREMATCH
       $`      The string preceding whatever was matched by the last successful pattern match,
               not counting any matches hidden within a BLOCK or "eval" enclosed by the current
               BLOCK.

               See "Performance issues" above for the serious performance implications of using
               this variable (even once) in your code.

               This variable is read-only and dynamically-scoped.

               Mnemonic: "`" often precedes a quoted string.

       ${^PREMATCH}
               This is similar to "$`" ($PREMATCH) except that it does not incur the performance
               penalty associated with that variable.

               See "Performance issues" above.

               In Perl v5.18 and earlier, it is only guaranteed to return a defined value when
               the pattern was compiled or executed with the "/p" modifier.  In Perl v5.20, the
               "/p" modifier does nothing, so "${^PREMATCH}" does the same thing as $PREMATCH.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.10.0.

               This variable is read-only and dynamically-scoped.

       $POSTMATCH
       $'      The string following whatever was matched by the last successful pattern match
               (not counting any matches hidden within a BLOCK or "eval()" enclosed by the
               current BLOCK).  Example:

                   local $_ = 'abcdefghi';
                   /def/;
                   print "$`:$&:$'\n";         # prints abc:def:ghi

               See "Performance issues" above for the serious performance implications of using
               this variable (even once) in your code.

               This variable is read-only and dynamically-scoped.

               Mnemonic: "'" often follows a quoted string.

       ${^POSTMATCH}
               This is similar to "$'" ($POSTMATCH) except that it does not incur the performance
               penalty associated with that variable.

               See "Performance issues" above.

               In Perl v5.18 and earlier, it is only guaranteed to return a defined value when
               the pattern was compiled or executed with the "/p" modifier.  In Perl v5.20, the
               "/p" modifier does nothing, so "${^POSTMATCH}" does the same thing as $POSTMATCH.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.10.0.

               This variable is read-only and dynamically-scoped.

       $LAST_PAREN_MATCH
       $+      The text matched by the last bracket of the last successful search pattern.  This
               is useful if you don't know which one of a set of alternative patterns matched.
               For example:

                   /Version: (.*)|Revision: (.*)/ && ($rev = $+);

               This variable is read-only and dynamically-scoped.

               Mnemonic: be positive and forward looking.

       $LAST_SUBMATCH_RESULT
       $^N     The text matched by the used group most-recently closed (i.e. the group with the
               rightmost closing parenthesis) of the last successful search pattern.

               This is primarily used inside "(?{...})" blocks for examining text recently
               matched.  For example, to effectively capture text to a variable (in addition to
               $1, $2, etc.), replace "(...)" with

                   (?:(...)(?{ $var = $^N }))

               By setting and then using $var in this way relieves you from having to worry about
               exactly which numbered set of parentheses they are.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.8.0.

               Mnemonic: the (possibly) Nested parenthesis that most recently closed.

       @LAST_MATCH_END
       @+      This array holds the offsets of the ends of the last successful submatches in the
               currently active dynamic scope.  $+[0] is the offset into the string of the end of
               the entire match.  This is the same value as what the "pos" function returns when
               called on the variable that was matched against.  The nth element of this array
               holds the offset of the nth submatch, so $+[1] is the offset past where $1 ends,
               $+[2] the offset past where $2 ends, and so on.  You can use $#+ to determine how
               many subgroups were in the last successful match.  See the examples given for the
               "@-" variable.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.6.0.

       %LAST_PAREN_MATCH
       %+      Similar to "@+", the "%+" hash allows access to the named capture buffers, should
               they exist, in the last successful match in the currently active dynamic scope.

               For example, $+{foo} is equivalent to $1 after the following match:

                   'foo' =~ /(?<foo>foo)/;

               The keys of the "%+" hash list only the names of buffers that have captured (and
               that are thus associated to defined values).

               The underlying behaviour of "%+" is provided by the Tie::Hash::NamedCapture
               module.

               Note: "%-" and "%+" are tied views into a common internal hash associated with the
               last successful regular expression.  Therefore mixing iterative access to them via
               "each" may have unpredictable results.  Likewise, if the last successful match
               changes, then the results may be surprising.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.10.0.

               This variable is read-only and dynamically-scoped.

       @LAST_MATCH_START
       @-      "$-[0]" is the offset of the start of the last successful match.  "$-["n"]" is the
               offset of the start of the substring matched by n-th subpattern, or undef if the
               subpattern did not match.

               Thus, after a match against $_, $& coincides with "substr $_, $-[0], $+[0] -
               $-[0]".  Similarly, $n coincides with "substr $_, $-[n], $+[n] - $-[n]" if "$-[n]"
               is defined, and $+ coincides with "substr $_, $-[$#-], $+[$#-] - $-[$#-]".  One
               can use "$#-" to find the last matched subgroup in the last successful match.
               Contrast with $#+, the number of subgroups in the regular expression.  Compare
               with "@+".

               This array holds the offsets of the beginnings of the last successful submatches
               in the currently active dynamic scope.  "$-[0]" is the offset into the string of
               the beginning of the entire match.  The nth element of this array holds the offset
               of the nth submatch, so "$-[1]" is the offset where $1 begins, "$-[2]" the offset
               where $2 begins, and so on.

               After a match against some variable $var:

               "$`" is the same as "substr($var, 0, $-[0])"
               $& is the same as "substr($var, $-[0], $+[0] - $-[0])"
               "$'" is the same as "substr($var, $+[0])"
               $1 is the same as "substr($var, $-[1], $+[1] - $-[1])"
               $2 is the same as "substr($var, $-[2], $+[2] - $-[2])"
               $3 is the same as "substr($var, $-[3], $+[3] - $-[3])"

               This variable was added in Perl v5.6.0.

       %LAST_MATCH_START
       %-      Similar to "%+", this variable allows access to the named capture groups in the
               last successful match in the currently active dynamic scope.  To each capture
               group name found in the regular expression, it associates a reference to an array
               containing the list of values captured by all buffers with that name (should there
               be several of them), in the order where they appear.

               Here's an example:

                   if ('1234' =~ /(?<A>1)(?<B>2)(?<A>3)(?<B>4)/) {
                       foreach my $bufname (sort keys %-) {
                           my $ary = $-{$bufname};
                           foreach my $idx (0..$#$ary) {
                               print "\$-{$bufname}[$idx] : ",
                                     (defined($ary->[$idx])
                                         ? "'$ary->[$idx]'"
                                         : "undef"),
                                     "\n";
                           }
                       }
                   }

               would print out:

                   $-{A}[0] : '1'
                   $-{A}[1] : '3'
                   $-{B}[0] : '2'
                   $-{B}[1] : '4'

               The keys of the "%-" hash correspond to all buffer names found in the regular
               expression.

               The behaviour of "%-" is implemented via the Tie::Hash::NamedCapture module.

               Note: "%-" and "%+" are tied views into a common internal hash associated with the
               last successful regular expression.  Therefore mixing iterative access to them via
               "each" may have unpredictable results.  Likewise, if the last successful match
               changes, then the results may be surprising.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.10.0.

               This variable is read-only and dynamically-scoped.

       $LAST_REGEXP_CODE_RESULT
       $^R     The result of evaluation of the last successful "(?{ code })" regular expression
               assertion (see perlre).  May be written to.

               This variable was added in Perl 5.005.

       ${^RE_DEBUG_FLAGS}
               The current value of the regex debugging flags.  Set to 0 for no debug output even
               when the "re 'debug'" module is loaded.  See re for details.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.10.0.

       ${^RE_TRIE_MAXBUF}
               Controls how certain regex optimisations are applied and how much memory they
               utilize.  This value by default is 65536 which corresponds to a 512kB temporary
               cache.  Set this to a higher value to trade memory for speed when matching large
               alternations.  Set it to a lower value if you want the optimisations to be as
               conservative of memory as possible but still occur, and set it to a negative value
               to prevent the optimisation and conserve the most memory.  Under normal situations
               this variable should be of no interest to you.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.10.0.

   Variables related to filehandles
       Variables that depend on the currently selected filehandle may be set by calling an
       appropriate object method on the "IO::Handle" object, although this is less efficient than
       using the regular built-in variables.  (Summary lines below for this contain the word
       HANDLE.)  First you must say

           use IO::Handle;

       after which you may use either

           method HANDLE EXPR

       or more safely,

           HANDLE->method(EXPR)

       Each method returns the old value of the "IO::Handle" attribute.  The methods each take an
       optional EXPR, which, if supplied, specifies the new value for the "IO::Handle" attribute
       in question.  If not supplied, most methods do nothing to the current value--except for
       "autoflush()", which will assume a 1 for you, just to be different.

       Because loading in the "IO::Handle" class is an expensive operation, you should learn how
       to use the regular built-in variables.

       A few of these variables are considered "read-only".  This means that if you try to assign
       to this variable, either directly or indirectly through a reference, you'll raise a run-
       time exception.

       You should be very careful when modifying the default values of most special variables
       described in this document.  In most cases you want to localize these variables before
       changing them, since if you don't, the change may affect other modules which rely on the
       default values of the special variables that you have changed.  This is one of the correct
       ways to read the whole file at once:

           open my $fh, "<", "foo" or die $!;
           local $/; # enable localized slurp mode
           my $content = <$fh>;
           close $fh;

       But the following code is quite bad:

           open my $fh, "<", "foo" or die $!;
           undef $/; # enable slurp mode
           my $content = <$fh>;
           close $fh;

       since some other module, may want to read data from some file in the default "line mode",
       so if the code we have just presented has been executed, the global value of $/ is now
       changed for any other code running inside the same Perl interpreter.

       Usually when a variable is localized you want to make sure that this change affects the
       shortest scope possible.  So unless you are already inside some short "{}" block, you
       should create one yourself.  For example:

           my $content = '';
           open my $fh, "<", "foo" or die $!;
           {
               local $/;
               $content = <$fh>;
           }
           close $fh;

       Here is an example of how your own code can go broken:

           for ( 1..3 ){
               $\ = "\r\n";
               nasty_break();
               print "$_";
           }

           sub nasty_break {
               $\ = "\f";
               # do something with $_
           }

       You probably expect this code to print the equivalent of

           "1\r\n2\r\n3\r\n"

       but instead you get:

           "1\f2\f3\f"

       Why? Because "nasty_break()" modifies "$\" without localizing it first.  The value you set
       in  "nasty_break()" is still there when you return.  The fix is to add "local()" so the
       value doesn't leak out of "nasty_break()":

           local $\ = "\f";

       It's easy to notice the problem in such a short example, but in more complicated code you
       are looking for trouble if you don't localize changes to the special variables.

       $ARGV   Contains the name of the current file when reading from "<>".

       @ARGV   The array @ARGV contains the command-line arguments intended for the script.
               $#ARGV is generally the number of arguments minus one, because $ARGV[0] is the
               first argument, not the program's command name itself.  See "$0" for the command
               name.

       ARGV    The special filehandle that iterates over command-line filenames in @ARGV.
               Usually written as the null filehandle in the angle operator "<>".  Note that
               currently "ARGV" only has its magical effect within the "<>" operator; elsewhere
               it is just a plain filehandle corresponding to the last file opened by "<>".  In
               particular, passing "\*ARGV" as a parameter to a function that expects a
               filehandle may not cause your function to automatically read the contents of all
               the files in @ARGV.

       ARGVOUT The special filehandle that points to the currently open output file when doing
               edit-in-place processing with -i.  Useful when you have to do a lot of inserting
               and don't want to keep modifying $_.  See perlrun for the -i switch.

       IO::Handle->output_field_separator( EXPR )
       $OUTPUT_FIELD_SEPARATOR
       $OFS
       $,      The output field separator for the print operator.  If defined, this value is
               printed between each of print's arguments.  Default is "undef".

               You cannot call "output_field_separator()" on a handle, only as a static method.
               See IO::Handle.

               Mnemonic: what is printed when there is a "," in your print statement.

       HANDLE->input_line_number( EXPR )
       $INPUT_LINE_NUMBER
       $NR
       $.      Current line number for the last filehandle accessed.

               Each filehandle in Perl counts the number of lines that have been read from it.
               (Depending on the value of $/, Perl's idea of what constitutes a line may not
               match yours.)  When a line is read from a filehandle (via "readline()" or "<>"),
               or when "tell()" or "seek()" is called on it, $. becomes an alias to the line
               counter for that filehandle.

               You can adjust the counter by assigning to $., but this will not actually move the
               seek pointer.  Localizing $. will not localize the filehandle's line count.
               Instead, it will localize perl's notion of which filehandle $. is currently
               aliased to.

               $. is reset when the filehandle is closed, but not when an open filehandle is
               reopened without an intervening "close()".  For more details, see "I/O Operators"
               in perlop.  Because "<>" never does an explicit close, line numbers increase
               across "ARGV" files (but see examples in "eof" in perlfunc).

               You can also use "HANDLE->input_line_number(EXPR)" to access the line counter for
               a given filehandle without having to worry about which handle you last accessed.

               Mnemonic: many programs use "." to mean the current line number.

       IO::Handle->input_record_separator( EXPR )
       $INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR
       $RS
       $/      The input record separator, newline by default.  This influences Perl's idea of
               what a "line" is.  Works like awk's RS variable, including treating empty lines as
               a terminator if set to the null string (an empty line cannot contain any spaces or
               tabs).  You may set it to a multi-character string to match a multi-character
               terminator, or to "undef" to read through the end of file.  Setting it to "\n\n"
               means something slightly different than setting to "", if the file contains
               consecutive empty lines.  Setting to "" will treat two or more consecutive empty
               lines as a single empty line.  Setting to "\n\n" will blindly assume that the next
               input character belongs to the next paragraph, even if it's a newline.

                   local $/;           # enable "slurp" mode
                   local $_ = <FH>;    # whole file now here
                   s/\n[ \t]+/ /g;

               Remember: the value of $/ is a string, not a regex.  awk has to be better for
               something. :-)

               Setting $/ to a reference to an integer, scalar containing an integer, or scalar
               that's convertible to an integer will attempt to read records instead of lines,
               with the maximum record size being the referenced integer number of characters.
               So this:

                   local $/ = \32768; # or \"32768", or \$var_containing_32768
                   open my $fh, "<", $myfile or die $!;
                   local $_ = <$fh>;

               will read a record of no more than 32768 characters from $fh.  If you're not
               reading from a record-oriented file (or your OS doesn't have record-oriented
               files), then you'll likely get a full chunk of data with every read.  If a record
               is larger than the record size you've set, you'll get the record back in pieces.
               Trying to set the record size to zero or less is deprecated and will cause $/ to
               have the value of "undef", which will cause reading in the (rest of the) whole
               file.

               As of 5.19.9 setting $/ to any other form of reference will throw a fatal
               exception. This is in preparation for supporting new ways to set $/ in the future.

               On VMS only, record reads bypass PerlIO layers and any associated buffering, so
               you must not mix record and non-record reads on the same filehandle.  Record mode
               mixes with line mode only when the same buffering layer is in use for both modes.

               You cannot call "input_record_separator()" on a handle, only as a static method.
               See IO::Handle.

               See also "Newlines" in perlport.  Also see "$.".

               Mnemonic: / delimits line boundaries when quoting poetry.

       IO::Handle->output_record_separator( EXPR )
       $OUTPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR
       $ORS
       $\      The output record separator for the print operator.  If defined, this value is
               printed after the last of print's arguments.  Default is "undef".

               You cannot call "output_record_separator()" on a handle, only as a static method.
               See IO::Handle.

               Mnemonic: you set "$\" instead of adding "\n" at the end of the print.  Also, it's
               just like $/, but it's what you get "back" from Perl.

       HANDLE->autoflush( EXPR )
       $OUTPUT_AUTOFLUSH
       $|      If set to nonzero, forces a flush right away and after every write or print on the
               currently selected output channel.  Default is 0 (regardless of whether the
               channel is really buffered by the system or not; $| tells you only whether you've
               asked Perl explicitly to flush after each write).  STDOUT will typically be line
               buffered if output is to the terminal and block buffered otherwise.  Setting this
               variable is useful primarily when you are outputting to a pipe or socket, such as
               when you are running a Perl program under rsh and want to see the output as it's
               happening.  This has no effect on input buffering.  See "getc" in perlfunc for
               that.  See "select" in perlfunc on how to select the output channel.  See also
               IO::Handle.

               Mnemonic: when you want your pipes to be piping hot.

       ${^LAST_FH}
               This read-only variable contains a reference to the last-read filehandle.  This is
               set by "<HANDLE>", "readline", "tell", "eof" and "seek".  This is the same handle
               that $. and "tell" and "eof" without arguments use.  It is also the handle used
               when Perl appends ", <STDIN> line 1" to an error or warning message.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.18.0.

       Variables related to formats

       The special variables for formats are a subset of those for filehandles.  See perlform for
       more information about Perl's formats.

       $ACCUMULATOR
       $^A     The current value of the "write()" accumulator for "format()" lines.  A format
               contains "formline()" calls that put their result into $^A.  After calling its
               format, "write()" prints out the contents of $^A and empties.  So you never really
               see the contents of $^A unless you call "formline()" yourself and then look at it.
               See perlform and "formline PICTURE,LIST" in perlfunc.

       IO::Handle->format_formfeed(EXPR)
       $FORMAT_FORMFEED
       $^L     What formats output as a form feed.  The default is "\f".

               You cannot call "format_formfeed()" on a handle, only as a static method.  See
               IO::Handle.

       HANDLE->format_page_number(EXPR)
       $FORMAT_PAGE_NUMBER
       $%      The current page number of the currently selected output channel.

               Mnemonic: "%" is page number in nroff.

       HANDLE->format_lines_left(EXPR)
       $FORMAT_LINES_LEFT
       $-      The number of lines left on the page of the currently selected output channel.

               Mnemonic: lines_on_page - lines_printed.

       IO::Handle->format_line_break_characters EXPR
       $FORMAT_LINE_BREAK_CHARACTERS
       $:      The current set of characters after which a string may be broken to fill
               continuation fields (starting with "^") in a format.  The default is " \n-", to
               break on a space, newline, or a hyphen.

               You cannot call "format_line_break_characters()" on a handle, only as a static
               method.  See IO::Handle.

               Mnemonic: a "colon" in poetry is a part of a line.

       HANDLE->format_lines_per_page(EXPR)
       $FORMAT_LINES_PER_PAGE
       $=      The current page length (printable lines) of the currently selected output
               channel.  The default is 60.

               Mnemonic: = has horizontal lines.

       HANDLE->format_top_name(EXPR)
       $FORMAT_TOP_NAME
       $^      The name of the current top-of-page format for the currently selected output
               channel.  The default is the name of the filehandle with "_TOP" appended.  For
               example, the default format top name for the "STDOUT" filehandle is "STDOUT_TOP".

               Mnemonic: points to top of page.

       HANDLE->format_name(EXPR)
       $FORMAT_NAME
       $~      The name of the current report format for the currently selected output channel.
               The default format name is the same as the filehandle name.  For example, the
               default format name for the "STDOUT" filehandle is just "STDOUT".

               Mnemonic: brother to $^.

   Error Variables
       The variables $@, $!, $^E, and $? contain information about different types of error
       conditions that may appear during execution of a Perl program.  The variables are shown
       ordered by the "distance" between the subsystem which reported the error and the Perl
       process.  They correspond to errors detected by the Perl interpreter, C library, operating
       system, or an external program, respectively.

       To illustrate the differences between these variables, consider the following Perl
       expression, which uses a single-quoted string.  After execution of this statement, perl
       may have set all four special error variables:

           eval q{
               open my $pipe, "/cdrom/install |" or die $!;
               my @res = <$pipe>;
               close $pipe or die "bad pipe: $?, $!";
           };

       When perl executes the "eval()" expression, it translates the "open()", "<PIPE>", and
       "close" calls in the C run-time library and thence to the operating system kernel.  perl
       sets $! to the C library's "errno" if one of these calls fails.

       $@ is set if the string to be "eval"-ed did not compile (this may happen if "open" or
       "close" were imported with bad prototypes), or if Perl code executed during evaluation
       "die()"d.  In these cases the value of $@ is the compile error, or the argument to "die"
       (which will interpolate $! and $?).  (See also Fatal, though.)

       Under a few operating systems, $^E may contain a more verbose error indicator, such as in
       this case, "CDROM tray not closed."  Systems that do not support extended error messages
       leave $^E the same as $!.

       Finally, $? may be set to non-0 value if the external program /cdrom/install fails.  The
       upper eight bits reflect specific error conditions encountered by the program (the
       program's "exit()" value).  The lower eight bits reflect mode of failure, like signal
       death and core dump information.  See wait(2) for details.  In contrast to $! and $^E,
       which are set only if error condition is detected, the variable $? is set on each "wait"
       or pipe "close", overwriting the old value.  This is more like $@, which on every "eval()"
       is always set on failure and cleared on success.

       For more details, see the individual descriptions at $@, $!, $^E, and $?.

       ${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}
               The native status returned by the last pipe close, backtick ("``") command,
               successful call to "wait()" or "waitpid()", or from the "system()" operator.  On
               POSIX-like systems this value can be decoded with the WIFEXITED, WEXITSTATUS,
               WIFSIGNALED, WTERMSIG, WIFSTOPPED, WSTOPSIG and WIFCONTINUED functions provided by
               the POSIX module.

               Under VMS this reflects the actual VMS exit status; i.e. it is the same as $? when
               the pragma "use vmsish 'status'" is in effect.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.10.0.

       $EXTENDED_OS_ERROR
       $^E     Error information specific to the current operating system.  At the moment, this
               differs from $! under only VMS, OS/2, and Win32 (and for MacPerl).  On all other
               platforms, $^E is always just the same as $!.

               Under VMS, $^E provides the VMS status value from the last system error.  This is
               more specific information about the last system error than that provided by $!.
               This is particularly important when $!  is set to EVMSERR.

               Under OS/2, $^E is set to the error code of the last call to OS/2 API either via
               CRT, or directly from perl.

               Under Win32, $^E always returns the last error information reported by the Win32
               call "GetLastError()" which describes the last error from within the Win32 API.
               Most Win32-specific code will report errors via $^E.  ANSI C and Unix-like calls
               set "errno" and so most portable Perl code will report errors via $!.

               Caveats mentioned in the description of $! generally apply to $^E, also.

               This variable was added in Perl 5.003.

               Mnemonic: Extra error explanation.

       $EXCEPTIONS_BEING_CAUGHT
       $^S     Current state of the interpreter.

                       $^S         State
                       ---------   -------------------------------------
                       undef       Parsing module, eval, or main program
                       true (1)    Executing an eval
                       false (0)   Otherwise

               The first state may happen in $SIG{__DIE__} and $SIG{__WARN__} handlers.

               The English name $EXCEPTIONS_BEING_CAUGHT is slightly misleading, because the
               "undef" value does not indicate whether exceptions are being caught, since
               compilation of the main program does not catch exceptions.

               This variable was added in Perl 5.004.

       $WARNING
       $^W     The current value of the warning switch, initially true if -w was used, false
               otherwise, but directly modifiable.

               See also warnings.

               Mnemonic: related to the -w switch.

       ${^WARNING_BITS}
               The current set of warning checks enabled by the "use warnings" pragma.  It has
               the same scoping as the $^H and "%^H" variables.  The exact values are considered
               internal to the warnings pragma and may change between versions of Perl.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.6.0.

       $OS_ERROR
       $ERRNO
       $!      When referenced, $! retrieves the current value of the C "errno" integer variable.
               If $! is assigned a numerical value, that value is stored in "errno".  When
               referenced as a string, $! yields the system error string corresponding to
               "errno".

               Many system or library calls set "errno" if they fail, to indicate the cause of
               failure.  They usually do not set "errno" to zero if they succeed.  This means
               "errno", hence $!, is meaningful only immediately after a failure:

                   if (open my $fh, "<", $filename) {
                               # Here $! is meaningless.
                               ...
                   }
                   else {
                               # ONLY here is $! meaningful.
                               ...
                               # Already here $! might be meaningless.
                   }
                   # Since here we might have either success or failure,
                   # $! is meaningless.

               Here, meaningless means that $! may be unrelated to the outcome of the "open()"
               operator.  Assignment to $! is similarly ephemeral.  It can be used immediately
               before invoking the "die()" operator, to set the exit value, or to inspect the
               system error string corresponding to error n, or to restore $! to a meaningful
               state.

               Note that when stringified, the text is always returned as if both "use locale"
               and "use bytes" are in effect.  This is likely to change in v5.22.

               Mnemonic: What just went bang?

       %OS_ERROR
       %ERRNO
       %!      Each element of "%!" has a true value only if $! is set to that value.  For
               example, $!{ENOENT} is true if and only if the current value of $! is "ENOENT";
               that is, if the most recent error was "No such file or directory" (or its moral
               equivalent: not all operating systems give that exact error, and certainly not all
               languages).  To check if a particular key is meaningful on your system, use
               "exists $!{the_key}"; for a list of legal keys, use "keys %!".  See Errno for more
               information, and also see "$!".

               This variable was added in Perl 5.005.

       $CHILD_ERROR
       $?      The status returned by the last pipe close, backtick ("``") command, successful
               call to "wait()" or "waitpid()", or from the "system()" operator.  This is just
               the 16-bit status word returned by the traditional Unix "wait()" system call (or
               else is made up to look like it).  Thus, the exit value of the subprocess is
               really ("$? >> 8"), and "$? & 127" gives which signal, if any, the process died
               from, and "$? & 128" reports whether there was a core dump.

               Additionally, if the "h_errno" variable is supported in C, its value is returned
               via $? if any "gethost*()" function fails.

               If you have installed a signal handler for "SIGCHLD", the value of $? will usually
               be wrong outside that handler.

               Inside an "END" subroutine $? contains the value that is going to be given to
               "exit()".  You can modify $? in an "END" subroutine to change the exit status of
               your program.  For example:

                   END {
                       $? = 1 if $? == 255;  # die would make it 255
                   }

               Under VMS, the pragma "use vmsish 'status'" makes $? reflect the actual VMS exit
               status, instead of the default emulation of POSIX status; see "$?" in perlvms for
               details.

               Mnemonic: similar to sh and ksh.

       $EVAL_ERROR
       $@      The Perl syntax error message from the last "eval()" operator.  If $@ is the null
               string, the last "eval()" parsed and executed correctly (although the operations
               you invoked may have failed in the normal fashion).

               Warning messages are not collected in this variable.  You can, however, set up a
               routine to process warnings by setting $SIG{__WARN__} as described in "%SIG".

               Mnemonic: Where was the syntax error "at"?

   Variables related to the interpreter state
       These variables provide information about the current interpreter state.

       $COMPILING
       $^C     The current value of the flag associated with the -c switch.  Mainly of use with
               -MO=... to allow code to alter its behavior when being compiled, such as for
               example to "AUTOLOAD" at compile time rather than normal, deferred loading.
               Setting "$^C = 1" is similar to calling "B::minus_c".

               This variable was added in Perl v5.6.0.

       $DEBUGGING
       $^D     The current value of the debugging flags.  May be read or set.  Like its command-
               line equivalent, you can use numeric or symbolic values, eg "$^D = 10" or "$^D =
               "st"".

               Mnemonic: value of -D switch.

       ${^ENCODING}
               The object reference to the "Encode" object that is used to convert the source
               code to Unicode.  Thanks to this variable your Perl script does not have to be
               written in UTF-8.  Default is undef.  The direct manipulation of this variable is
               highly discouraged.

               This variable was added in Perl 5.8.2.

       ${^GLOBAL_PHASE}
               The current phase of the perl interpreter.

               Possible values are:

               CONSTRUCT
                       The "PerlInterpreter*" is being constructed via "perl_construct".  This
                       value is mostly there for completeness and for use via the underlying C
                       variable "PL_phase".  It's not really possible for Perl code to be
                       executed unless construction of the interpreter is finished.

               START   This is the global compile-time.  That includes, basically, every "BEGIN"
                       block executed directly or indirectly from during the compile-time of the
                       top-level program.

                       This phase is not called "BEGIN" to avoid confusion with "BEGIN"-blocks,
                       as those are executed during compile-time of any compilation unit, not
                       just the top-level program.  A new, localised compile-time entered at run-
                       time, for example by constructs as "eval "use SomeModule"" are not global
                       interpreter phases, and therefore aren't reflected by "${^GLOBAL_PHASE}".

               CHECK   Execution of any "CHECK" blocks.

               INIT    Similar to "CHECK", but for "INIT"-blocks, not "CHECK" blocks.

               RUN     The main run-time, i.e. the execution of "PL_main_root".

               END     Execution of any "END" blocks.

               DESTRUCT
                       Global destruction.

               Also note that there's no value for UNITCHECK-blocks.  That's because those are
               run for each compilation unit individually, and therefore is not a global
               interpreter phase.

               Not every program has to go through each of the possible phases, but transition
               from one phase to another can only happen in the order described in the above
               list.

               An example of all of the phases Perl code can see:

                   BEGIN { print "compile-time: ${^GLOBAL_PHASE}\n" }

                   INIT  { print "init-time: ${^GLOBAL_PHASE}\n" }

                   CHECK { print "check-time: ${^GLOBAL_PHASE}\n" }

                   {
                       package Print::Phase;

                       sub new {
                           my ($class, $time) = @_;
                           return bless \$time, $class;
                       }

                       sub DESTROY {
                           my $self = shift;
                           print "$$self: ${^GLOBAL_PHASE}\n";
                       }
                   }

                   print "run-time: ${^GLOBAL_PHASE}\n";

                   my $runtime = Print::Phase->new(
                       "lexical variables are garbage collected before END"
                   );

                   END   { print "end-time: ${^GLOBAL_PHASE}\n" }

                   our $destruct = Print::Phase->new(
                       "package variables are garbage collected after END"
                   );

               This will print out

                   compile-time: START
                   check-time: CHECK
                   init-time: INIT
                   run-time: RUN
                   lexical variables are garbage collected before END: RUN
                   end-time: END
                   package variables are garbage collected after END: DESTRUCT

               This variable was added in Perl 5.14.0.

       $^H     WARNING: This variable is strictly for internal use only.  Its availability,
               behavior, and contents are subject to change without notice.

               This variable contains compile-time hints for the Perl interpreter.  At the end of
               compilation of a BLOCK the value of this variable is restored to the value when
               the interpreter started to compile the BLOCK.

               When perl begins to parse any block construct that provides a lexical scope (e.g.,
               eval body, required file, subroutine body, loop body, or conditional block), the
               existing value of $^H is saved, but its value is left unchanged.  When the
               compilation of the block is completed, it regains the saved value.  Between the
               points where its value is saved and restored, code that executes within BEGIN
               blocks is free to change the value of $^H.

               This behavior provides the semantic of lexical scoping, and is used in, for
               instance, the "use strict" pragma.

               The contents should be an integer; different bits of it are used for different
               pragmatic flags.  Here's an example:

                   sub add_100 { $^H |= 0x100 }

                   sub foo {
                       BEGIN { add_100() }
                       bar->baz($boon);
                   }

               Consider what happens during execution of the BEGIN block.  At this point the
               BEGIN block has already been compiled, but the body of "foo()" is still being
               compiled.  The new value of $^H will therefore be visible only while the body of
               "foo()" is being compiled.

               Substitution of "BEGIN { add_100() }" block with:

                   BEGIN { require strict; strict->import('vars') }

               demonstrates how "use strict 'vars'" is implemented.  Here's a conditional version
               of the same lexical pragma:

                   BEGIN {
                       require strict; strict->import('vars') if $condition
                   }

               This variable was added in Perl 5.003.

       %^H     The "%^H" hash provides the same scoping semantic as $^H.  This makes it useful
               for implementation of lexically scoped pragmas.  See perlpragma.

               When putting items into "%^H", in order to avoid conflicting with other users of
               the hash there is a convention regarding which keys to use.  A module should use
               only keys that begin with the module's name (the name of its main package) and a
               "/" character.  For example, a module "Foo::Bar" should use keys such as
               "Foo::Bar/baz".

               This variable was added in Perl v5.6.0.

       ${^OPEN}
               An internal variable used by PerlIO.  A string in two parts, separated by a "\0"
               byte, the first part describes the input layers, the second part describes the
               output layers.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.8.0.

       $PERLDB
       $^P     The internal variable for debugging support.  The meanings of the various bits are
               subject to change, but currently indicate:

               0x01  Debug subroutine enter/exit.

               0x02  Line-by-line debugging.  Causes "DB::DB()" subroutine to be called for each
                     statement executed.  Also causes saving source code lines (like 0x400).

               0x04  Switch off optimizations.

               0x08  Preserve more data for future interactive inspections.

               0x10  Keep info about source lines on which a subroutine is defined.

               0x20  Start with single-step on.

               0x40  Use subroutine address instead of name when reporting.

               0x80  Report "goto &subroutine" as well.

               0x100 Provide informative "file" names for evals based on the place they were
                     compiled.

               0x200 Provide informative names to anonymous subroutines based on the place they
                     were compiled.

               0x400 Save source code lines into "@{"_<$filename"}".

               0x800 When saving source, include evals that generate no subroutines.

               0x1000
                     When saving source, include source that did not compile.

               Some bits may be relevant at compile-time only, some at run-time only.  This is a
               new mechanism and the details may change.  See also perldebguts.

       ${^TAINT}
               Reflects if taint mode is on or off.  1 for on (the program was run with -T), 0
               for off, -1 when only taint warnings are enabled (i.e. with -t or -TU).

               This variable is read-only.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.8.0.

       ${^UNICODE}
               Reflects certain Unicode settings of Perl.  See perlrun documentation for the "-C"
               switch for more information about the possible values.

               This variable is set during Perl startup and is thereafter read-only.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.8.2.

       ${^UTF8CACHE}
               This variable controls the state of the internal UTF-8 offset caching code.  1 for
               on (the default), 0 for off, -1 to debug the caching code by checking all its
               results against linear scans, and panicking on any discrepancy.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.8.9.  It is subject to change or removal
               without notice, but is currently used to avoid recalculating the boundaries of
               multi-byte UTF-8-encoded characters.

       ${^UTF8LOCALE}
               This variable indicates whether a UTF-8 locale was detected by perl at startup.
               This information is used by perl when it's in adjust-utf8ness-to-locale mode (as
               when run with the "-CL" command-line switch); see perlrun for more info on this.

               This variable was added in Perl v5.8.8.

   Deprecated and removed variables
       Deprecating a variable announces the intent of the perl maintainers to eventually remove
       the variable from the language.  It may still be available despite its status.  Using a
       deprecated variable triggers a warning.

       Once a variable is removed, its use triggers an error telling you the variable is
       unsupported.

       See perldiag for details about error messages.

       $#      $# was a variable that could be used to format printed numbers.  After a
               deprecation cycle, its magic was removed in Perl v5.10.0 and using it now triggers
               a warning: "$# is no longer supported".

               This is not the sigil you use in front of an array name to get the last index,
               like $#array.  That's still how you get the last index of an array in Perl.  The
               two have nothing to do with each other.

               Deprecated in Perl 5.

               Removed in Perl v5.10.0.

       $*      $* was a variable that you could use to enable multiline matching.  After a
               deprecation cycle, its magic was removed in Perl v5.10.0.  Using it now triggers a
               warning: "$* is no longer supported".  You should use the "/s" and "/m" regexp
               modifiers instead.

               Deprecated in Perl 5.

               Removed in Perl v5.10.0.

       $[      This variable stores the index of the first element in an array, and of the first
               character in a substring.  The default is 0, but you could theoretically set it to
               1 to make Perl behave more like awk (or Fortran) when subscripting and when
               evaluating the index() and substr() functions.

               As of release 5 of Perl, assignment to $[ is treated as a compiler directive, and
               cannot influence the behavior of any other file.  (That's why you can only assign
               compile-time constants to it.)  Its use is highly discouraged.

               Prior to Perl v5.10.0, assignment to $[ could be seen from outer lexical scopes in
               the same file, unlike other compile-time directives (such as strict).  Using
               local() on it would bind its value strictly to a lexical block.  Now it is always
               lexically scoped.

               As of Perl v5.16.0, it is implemented by the arybase module.  See arybase for more
               details on its behaviour.

               Under "use v5.16", or "no feature "array_base"", $[ no longer has any effect, and
               always contains 0.  Assigning 0 to it is permitted, but any other value will
               produce an error.

               Mnemonic: [ begins subscripts.

               Deprecated in Perl v5.12.0.

       $]      See "$^V" for a more modern representation of the Perl version that allows
               accurate string comparisons.

               The version + patchlevel / 1000 of the Perl interpreter.  This variable can be
               used to determine whether the Perl interpreter executing a script is in the right
               range of versions:

                   warn "No PerlIO!\n" if $] lt '5.008';

               The floating point representation can sometimes lead to inaccurate numeric
               comparisons, so string comparisons are recommended.

               See also the documentation of "use VERSION" and "require VERSION" for a convenient
               way to fail if the running Perl interpreter is too old.

               Mnemonic: Is this version of perl in the right bracket?



perl v5.20.2                                2015-01-15                                 PERLVAR(1)


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