8.48 Exporter (Perl in a Nutshell)

8.48 Exporter

Implements a default import method for other modules to inherit if they don't want to define their own. If you are writing a module, you can do the following:

package 
Module
;
use Exporter ();
@ISA = qw(Exporter);

@EXPORT = qw(...);              
@EXPORT_OK = qw(...);           
%EXPORT_TAGS = (tag => [...]);

where


@EXPORT

is a list of symbols to export by default,


@EXPORT_OK

is a list of symbols to export on request, and


%EXPORT_TAGS

is a hash that defines names for sets of symbols. Names in


%EXPORT_TAGS

must also appear in


@EXPORT


@EXPORT_OK

Then Perl programs that want to use your module just say:

use 
Module
;                 # Import default symbols
use 
Module
 qw(...);         # Import listed symbols
use 
Module
 ();              # Do not import any symbols

The Exporter can handle specialized import lists. An import list is the list of arguments passed to the


import

method. If the first entry begins with

, or

, the list is treated as a series of specifications that add to or delete from the list. A leading

means delete, rather than add.

Symbol	Meaning
`[!]` `name`	This `name` only
`[!]:DEFAULT`	All names in `@EXPORT`
`[!]:` `tag`	All names in `$EXPORT_TAGS{` `tag` `}` anonymous list
`[!]/` `pattern` `/`	All names in `@EXPORT` and `@EXPORT_OK` that match `pattern`

Exporter methods are: