Provided by: libinline-perl_0.86-2_all bug

NAME

       Inline - Write Perl Subroutines in Other Programming Languages

VERSION

       This document describes Inline version 0.86.

SYNOPSIS

           use Inline C;

           print "9 + 16 = ", add(9, 16), "\n";
           print "9 - 16 = ", subtract(9, 16), "\n";

           __END__
           __C__
           int add(int x, int y) {
             return x + y;
           }

           int subtract(int x, int y) {
             return x - y;
           }

DESCRIPTION

       The Inline module allows you to put source code from other programming languages directly
       "inline" in a Perl script or module. The code is automatically compiled as needed, and
       then loaded for immediate access from Perl.

       Inline saves you from the hassle of having to write and compile your own glue code using
       facilities like XS or SWIG. Simply type the code where you want it and run your Perl as
       normal. All the hairy details are handled for you. The compilation and installation of
       your code chunks all happen transparently; all you will notice is the delay of compilation
       on the first run.

       The Inline code only gets compiled the first time you run it (or whenever it is modified)
       so you only take the performance hit once. Code that is Inlined into distributed modules
       (like on the CPAN) will get compiled when the module is installed, so the end user will
       never notice the compilation time.

       Best of all, it works the same on both Unix and Microsoft Windows. See Inline- Support for
       support information.

   Why Inline?
       Do you want to know "Why would I use other languages in Perl?" or "Why should I use Inline
       to do it?"? I'll try to answer both.

       Why would I use other languages in Perl?
           The most obvious reason is performance. For an interpreted language, Perl is very
           fast. Many people will say "Anything Perl can do, C can do faster". (They never
           mention the development time :-) Anyway, you may be able to remove a bottleneck in
           your Perl code by using another language, without having to write the entire program
           in that language. This keeps your overall development time down, because you're using
           Perl for all of the non-critical code.

           Another reason is to access functionality from existing API-s that use the language.
           Some of this code may only be available in binary form. But by creating small
           subroutines in the native language, you can "glue" existing libraries to your Perl. As
           a user of the CPAN, you know that code reuse is a good thing. So why throw away those
           Fortran libraries just yet?

           If you are using Inline with the C language, then you can access the full internals of
           Perl itself. This opens up the floodgates to both extreme power and peril.

           Maybe the best reason is "Because you want to!". Diversity keeps the world
           interesting. TMTOWTDI!

       Why should I use Inline to do it?
           There are already two major facilities for extending Perl with C. They are XS and
           SWIG. Both are similar in their capabilities, at least as far as Perl is concerned.
           And both of them are quite difficult to learn compared to Inline.

           There is a big fat learning curve involved with setting up and using the XS
           environment. You need to get quite intimate with the following docs:

           •   perlxs

           •   perlxstut

           •   perlapi

           •   perlguts

           •   perlmod

           •   h2xs

           •   xsubpp

           •   ExtUtils::MakeMaker

           With Inline you can be up and running in minutes. There is a C Cookbook with lots of
           short but complete programs that you can extend to your real-life problems. No need to
           learn about the complicated build process going on in the background. You don't even
           need to compile the code yourself. Inline takes care of every last detail except
           writing the C code.

           Perl programmers cannot be bothered with silly things like compiling. "Tweak, Run,
           Tweak, Run" is our way of life. Inline does all the dirty work for you.

           Another advantage of Inline is that you can use it directly in a script. You can even
           use it in a Perl one-liner. With XS and SWIG, you always set up an entirely separate
           module. Even if you only have one or two functions. Inline makes easy things easy, and
           hard things possible. Just like Perl.

           Finally, Inline supports several programming languages (not just C and C++). As of
           this writing, Inline has support for C, C++, Java, Python, Ruby, Tcl, Assembler,
           Basic, Guile, Befunge, Octave, Awk, BC, TT (Template Toolkit), WebChat and even PERL.
           New Inline Language Support Modules (ILSMs) are regularly being added. See Inline-API
           for details on how to create your own ILSM.

USING THE INLINE.PM MODULE

       Inline is a little bit different than most of the Perl modules that you are used to. It
       doesn't import any functions into your namespace and it doesn't have any object oriented
       methods. Its entire interface (with two minor exceptions) is specified through the 'use
       Inline ...' command.

       This section will explain all of the different ways to "use Inline". If you want to begin
       using C with Inline immediately, see Inline::C-Cookbook.

   The Basics
       The most basic form for using Inline is:

           use Inline X => "X source code";

       where 'X' is one of the supported Inline programming languages. The second parameter
       identifies the source code that you want to bind to Perl. The source code can be specified
       using any of the following syntaxes:

       The DATA Keyword.
               use Inline Java => 'DATA';

               # Perl code goes here ...

               __DATA__
               __Java__
               /* Java code goes here ... */

           The easiest and most visually clean way to specify your source code in an Inline Perl
           program is to use the special "DATA" keyword. This tells Inline to look for a special
           marker in your "DATA" filehandle's input stream. In this example the special marker is
           "__Java__", which is the programming language surrounded by double underscores.

           In case you've forgotten, the "DATA" pseudo file is comprised of all the text after
           the "__END__" or "__DATA__" section of your program. If you're working outside the
           "main" package, you'd best use the "__DATA__" marker or else Inline will not find your
           code.

           Using this scheme keeps your Perl code at the top, and all the ugly Java stuff down
           below where it belongs. This is visually clean and makes for more maintainable code.
           An excellent side benefit is that you don't have to escape any characters like you
           might in a Perl string. The source code is verbatim.  For these reasons, I prefer this
           method the most.

           The only problem with this style is that since Perl can't read the "DATA" filehandle
           until runtime, it obviously can't bind your functions until runtime. The net effect of
           this is that you can't use your Inline functions as barewords (without predeclaring
           them) because Perl has no idea they exist during compile time.

       The FILE and BELOW keywords.
               use Inline::Files;
               use Inline Java => 'file';

               # Perl code goes here ...

               __JAVA__
               /* Java code goes here ... */

           This is the newest method of specifying your source code. It makes use of the Perl
           module "Inline::Files" written by Damian Conway. The basic style and meaning are the
           same as for the "DATA" keyword, but there are a few syntactic and semantic twists.

           First, you must say 'use Inline::Files' before you 'use Inline' code that needs those
           files. The special '"DATA"' keyword is replaced by either '"file"' or '"below"'. This
           allows for the bad pun idiom of:

               use Inline C => 'below';

           You can omit the "__DATA__" tag now. Inline::Files is a source filter that will remove
           these sections from your program before Perl compiles it. They are then available for
           Inline to make use of. And since this can all be done at compile time, you don't have
           to worry about the caveats of the 'DATA' keyword.

           This module has a couple small gotchas. Since Inline::Files only recognizes file
           markers with capital letters, you must specify the capital form of your language name.
           Also, there is a startup time penalty for using a source code filter.

           At this point Inline::Files is alpha software and use of it is experimental.  Inline's
           integration of this module is also fledgling at the time being. One of things I plan
           to do with Inline::Files is to get line number info so when an extension doesn't
           compile, the error messages will point to the correct source file and line number.

           My best advice is to use Inline::Files for testing (especially as support for it
           improves), but use DATA for production and distributed/CPAN code.

       Strings
               use Inline Java => <<'END';

               /* Java code goes here ... */
               END

               # Perl code goes here ...

           You also just specify the source code as a single string. A handy way to write the
           string is to use Perl's "here document" style of quoting. This is ok for small
           functions but can get unwieldy in the large. On the other hand, the string variant
           probably has the least startup penalty and all functions are bound at compile time.

           If you wish to put the string into a scalar variable, please be aware that the "use"
           statement is a compile time directive. As such, all the variables it uses must also be
           set at compile time, "before" the 'use Inline' statement.  Here is one way to do it:

               my $code;
               BEGIN {
                   $code = <<END;

               /* Java code goes here ... */
               END
               }
               use Inline Java => $code;

               # Perl code goes here ...

       The bind() Function
           An alternative to using the BEGIN block method is to specify the source code at run
           time using the 'Inline->bind()' method. (This is one of the interface exceptions
           mentioned above) The "bind()" method takes the same arguments as 'use Inline ...'.

               my $code = <<END;

               /* Java code goes here ... */
               END

               Inline->bind(Java => $code);

           You can think of "bind()" as a way to "eval()" code in other programming languages.

           Although bind() is a powerful feature, it is not recommended for use in Inline based
           modules. In fact, it won't work at all for installable modules. See instructions below
           for creating modules with Inline.

       Other Methods
           The source code for Inline can also be specified as an external filename, a reference
           to a subroutine that returns source code, or a reference to an array that contains
           lines of source code. (Note that if the external source file is in the current
           directory it must be specified with a leading '.' - ie '.file.ext' instead of simply
           'file.ext'.) These methods are less frequently used but may be useful in some
           situations.

           For instance, to load your C++ code from a file named the same as your perl module
           with a swapped file extension, you can use:

               use Inline CPP => (__FILE__ =~ s/\.pm$/.cpp/r);

       Shorthand
           If you are using the 'DATA' or 'file' methods described above and there are no extra
           parameters, you can omit the keyword altogether. For example:

               use Inline 'Java';

               # Perl code goes here ...

               __DATA__
               __Java__
               /* Java code goes here ... */

           or

               use Inline::Files;
               use Inline 'Java';

               # Perl code goes here ...

               __JAVA__
               /* Java code goes here ... */

   More about the DATA Section
       If you are writing a module, you can also use the DATA section for POD and AutoLoader
       subroutines. Just be sure to put them before the first Inline marker. If you install the
       helper module "Inline::Filters", you can even use POD inside your Inline code. You just
       have to specify a filter to strip it out.

       You can also specify multiple Inline sections, possibly in different programming
       languages. Here is another example:

           # The module Foo.pm
           package Foo;
           use AutoLoader;

           use Inline C;
           use Inline C => DATA => filters => 'Strip_POD';
           use Inline Python;

           1;

           __DATA__

           sub marine {
               # This is an autoloaded subroutine
           }

           =head1 External subroutines

           =cut

           __C__
           /* First C section */

           __C__
           /* Second C section */
           =head1 My C Function

           Some POD doc.

           =cut

           __Python__
           """A Python Section"""

       An important thing to remember is that you need to have one "use Inline Foo => 'DATA'" for
       each "__Foo__" marker, and they must be in the same order.  This allows you to apply
       different configuration options to each section.

   Configuration Options
       Inline tries to do the right thing as often as possible. But sometimes you may need to
       override the default actions. This is easy to do. Simply list the Inline configuration
       options after the regular Inline parameters. All configuration options are specified as
       (key, value) pairs.

           use Inline (C => 'DATA',
                       directory => './inline_dir',
                       libs => '-lfoo',
                       inc => '-I/foo/include',
                       prefix => 'XXX_',
                       warnings => 0,
                      );

       You can also specify the configuration options on a separate Inline call like this:

           use Inline (C => Config =>
                       directory => './inline_dir',
                       libs => '-lfoo',
                       inc => '-I/foo/include',
                       prefix => 'XXX_',
                       warnings => 0,
                      );
           use Inline C => <<'END_OF_C_CODE';

       The special keyword 'Config' tells Inline that this is a configuration-only call. No
       source code will be compiled or bound to Perl.

       If you want to specify global configuration options that don't apply to a particular
       language, just leave the language out of the call. Like this:

           use Inline Config => warnings => 0;

       The Config options are inherited and additive. You can use as many Config calls as you
       want. And you can apply different options to different code sections. When a source code
       section is passed in, Inline will apply whichever options have been specified up to that
       point. Here is a complex configuration example:

           use Inline (Config =>
                       directory => './inline_dir',
                      );
           use Inline (C => Config =>
                       libs => '-lglobal',
                      );
           use Inline (C => 'DATA',         # First C Section
                       libs => ['-llocal1', '-llocal2'],
                      );
           use Inline (Config =>
                       warnings => 0,
                      );
           use Inline (Python => 'DATA',    # First Python Section
                       libs => '-lmypython1',
                      );
           use Inline (C => 'DATA',         # Second C Section
                       libs => [undef, '-llocal3'],
                      );

       The first "Config" applies to all subsequent calls. The second "Config" applies to all
       subsequent "C" sections (but not "Python" sections). In the first "C" section, the
       external libraries "global", "local1" and "local2" are used. (Most options allow either
       string or array ref forms, and do the right thing.) The "Python" section does not use the
       "global" library, but does use the same "DIRECTORY", and has warnings turned off. The
       second "C" section only uses the "local3" library. That's because a value of "undef"
       resets the additive behavior.

       The "directory" and "warnings" options are generic Inline options. All other options are
       language specific. To find out what the "C" options do, see "Inline::C".

   On and Off
       If a particular config option has value options of 1 and 0, you can use the 'enable' and
       'disable' modifiers. In other words, this:

           use Inline Config =>
                      force_build => 1,
                      clean_after_build => 0;

       could be reworded as:

           use Inline Config =>
                      enable => force_build =>
                      disable => clean_after_build;

   Playing 'with' Others
       Inline has a special configuration syntax that tells it to get more configuration options
       from other Perl modules. Here is an example:

           use Inline with => 'Event';

       This tells Inline to load the module "Event.pm" and ask it for configuration information.
       Since "Event" has a C API of its own, it can pass Inline all of the information it needs
       to be able to use "Event" C callbacks seamlessly.

       That means that you don't need to specify the typemaps, shared libraries, include files
       and other information required to get this to work.

       You can specify a single module or a list of them. Like:

           use Inline with => qw(Event Foo Bar);

       Currently, modules that works with Inline include "Event", "PDL", and those that use
       "Alien::Build".

       In order to make your module work with Inline in this way, your module needs to provide a
       class method called "Inline" that takes an Inline language as a parameter (e.g. "C"), and
       returns a reference to a hash with configuration information that is acceptable to the
       relevant ILSM. For C, see C Configuration Options. E.g.:

           my $confighashref = Event->Inline('C'); # only supports C in 1.21
           # hashref contains keys INC, TYPEMAPS, MYEXTLIB, AUTO_INCLUDE, BOOT

       If your module uses ExtUtils::Depends version 0.400 or higher, your module only needs
       this:

           package Module;
           use autouse Module::Install::Files => qw(Inline);

   Inline Shortcuts
       Inline lets you set many configuration options from the command line. These options are
       called 'shortcuts'. They can be very handy, especially when you only want to set the
       options temporarily, for say, debugging.

       For instance, to get some general information about your Inline code in the script
       "Foo.pl", use the command:

           perl -MInline=info Foo.pl

       If you want to force your code to compile, even if its already done, use:

           perl -MInline=force Foo.pl

       If you want to do both, use:

           perl -MInline=info -MInline=force Foo.pl

       or better yet:

           perl -MInline=info,force Foo.pl

   The Inline 'directory'
       Inline needs a place to build your code and to install the results of the build. It uses a
       single directory named '.Inline/' under normal circumstances. If you create this directory
       in your home directory, the current directory or in the directory where your program
       resides, Inline will find and use it. You can also specify it in the environment variable
       "PERL_INLINE_DIRECTORY" or directly in your program, by using the "directory" keyword
       option. If Inline cannot find the directory in any of these places it will create a
       '_Inline/' directory in either your current directory or the directory where your script
       resides.

       One of the key factors to using Inline successfully, is understanding this directory. When
       developing code it is usually best to create this directory (or let Inline do it) in your
       current directory. Remember that there is nothing sacred about this directory except that
       it holds your compiled code.  Feel free to delete it at any time. Inline will simply start
       from scratch and recompile your code on the next run. If you have several programs that
       you want to force to recompile, just delete your '.Inline/' directory.

       It is probably best to have a separate '.Inline/' directory for each project that you are
       working on. You may want to keep stable code in the <.Inline/> in your home directory. On
       multi-user systems, each user should have their own '.Inline/' directories. It could be a
       security risk to put the directory in a shared place like "/tmp/".

   Debugging Inline Errors
       All programmers make mistakes. When you make a mistake with Inline, like writing bad C
       code, you'll get a big error report on your screen. This report tells you where to look to
       do the debugging. Some languages may also dump out the error messages generated from the
       build.

       When Inline needs to build something it creates a subdirectory under your
       "DIRECTORY/build/" directory. This is where it writes all the components it needs to build
       your extension. Things like XS files, Makefiles and output log files.

       If everything goes OK, Inline will delete this subdirectory. If there is an error, Inline
       will leave the directory intact and print its location.  The idea is that you are supposed
       to go into that directory and figure out what happened.

       Read the doc for your particular Inline Language Support Module for more information.

   The 'config' Registry File
       Inline keeps a cached file of all of the Inline Language Support Module's meta data in a
       file called "config". This file can be found in your "directory" directory. If the file
       does not exist, Inline creates a new one. It will search your system for any module
       beginning with "Inline::". It will then call that module's "register()" method to get
       useful information for future invocations.

       Whenever you add a new ILSM, you should delete this file so that Inline will auto-discover
       your newly installed language module. (This should no longer be necessary as of
       Inline-0.49.)

CONFIGURATION OPTIONS

       This section lists all of the generic Inline configuration options. For language specific
       configuration, see the doc for that language.

       "directory"
           The "directory" config option is the directory that Inline uses to both build and
           install an extension.

           Normally Inline will search in a bunch of known places for a directory called
           '.Inline/'. Failing that, it will create a directory called '_Inline/'

           If you want to specify your own directory, use this configuration option.

           Note that you must create the "directory" directory yourself. Inline will not do it
           for you.

       "name"
           You can use this option to set the name of your Inline extension object module. For
           example:

               use Inline C => 'DATA',
                          name => 'Foo::Bar';

           would cause your C code to be compiled in to the object:

               lib/auto/Foo/Bar/Bar.so
               lib/auto/Foo/Bar/Bar.inl

           (The .inl component contains dependency information to make sure the source code is in
           sync with the executable)

           If you don't use "name", Inline will pick a name for you based on your program name or
           package name. In this case, Inline will also enable the "autoname" option which
           mangles in a small piece of the MD5 fingerprint into your object name, to make it
           unique.

       "autoname"
           This option is enabled whenever the "name" parameter is not specified. To disable it
           say:

               use Inline C => 'DATA',
                          disable => 'autoname';

           "autoname" mangles in enough of the MD5 fingerprint to make your module name unique.
           Objects created with "autoname" will never get replaced. That also means they will
           never get cleaned up automatically.

           "autoname" is very useful for small throw away scripts. For more serious things,
           always use the "name" option.

       "version"
           Specifies the version number of the Inline extension object. It is used only for
           modules, and it must match the global variable $VERSION.  Additionally, this option
           should used if (and only if) a module is being set up to be installed permanently into
           the Perl sitelib tree using Inline::MakeMaker (NOT used by Inline::Module). Inline
           will croak if you use it otherwise.

           The presence of the "version" parameter is the official way to let Inline know that
           your code is an installable/installed module. Inline will never generate an object in
           the temporary cache ("_Inline/" directory) if "version" is set. It will also never try
           to recompile a module that was installed into someone's Perl site tree.

           So the basic rule is develop without "version", and deliver with "version".

       "with"
           "with" can also be used as a configuration option instead of using the special 'with'
           syntax. Do this if you want to use different sections of Inline code with different
           modules. (Probably a very rare usage)

               use Event;
               use Inline C => DATA => with => 'Event';

           Modules specified using the config form of "with" will not be automatically required.
           You must "use" them yourself.

       "using"
           You can override modules that get used by ILSMs with the "using" option. This is
           typically used to override the default parser for Inline::C, but might be used by any
           ILSM for any purpose.

               use Inline config => using => '::Parser::RecDescent';
               use Inline C => '...';

           This would tell Inline::C to use Inline::C::Parser::RecDescent.

       "global_load"
           This option is for compiled languages only. It tells Inline to tell DynaLoader to load
           an object file in such a way that its symbols can be dynamically resolved by other
           object files. May not work on all platforms. See the "global" shortcut below.

       "untaint"
           You can use this option whenever you use Perl's "-T" switch, for taint checking. This
           option tells Inline to blindly untaint all tainted variables.  (This is generally
           considered to be an appallingly insecure thing to do, and not to be recommended - but
           the option is there for you to use if you want.  Please consider using something other
           than Inline for scripts that need taint checking.) It also turns on "safemode" by
           default. See the "untaint" shortcut below. You will see warnings about blindly
           untainting fields in both %ENV and Inline objects. If you want to silence these
           warnings, set the Config option "no_untaint_warn" => 1. There can be some problems
           untainting Inline scripts where older versions of Cwd, such as those that shipped with
           early versions of perl-5.8 (and earlier), are installed. Updating Cwd will probably
           solve these problems.

       safemode
           Perform extra safety checking, in an attempt to thwart malicious code. This option
           cannot guarantee security, but it does turn on all the currently implemented checks.
           (Currently, the only "currently implemented check" is to ensure that the "directory"
           option has also been used.)

           There is a slight startup penalty by using "safemode". Also, using "untaint"
           automatically turns this option on. If you need your code to start faster under "-T"
           (taint) checking, you'll need to turn this option off manually.  Only do this if you
           are not worried about security risks. See the "unsafe" shortcut below.

       "force_build"
           Makes Inline build (compile) the source code every time the program is run.  The
           default is 0. See the "force" shortcut below.

       "build_noisy"
           Tells ILSMs that they should dump build messages to the terminal rather than be silent
           about all the build details.

       "build_timers"
           Tells ILSMs to print timing information about how long each build phase took.  Usually
           requires "Time::HiRes".

       "clean_after_build"
           Tells Inline to clean up the current build area if the build was successful.
           Sometimes you want to "disable" this for debugging. Default is 1. See the "noclean"
           shortcut below.

       "clean_build_area"
           Tells Inline to clean up the old build areas within the entire Inline "directory".
           Default is 0. See the "clean" shortcut below.

       "print_info"
           Tells Inline to print various information about the source code. Default is 0.  See
           the "info" shortcut below.

       "print_version"
           Tells Inline to print version info about itself. Default is 0. See the "version"
           shortcut below.

       "reportbug"
           Puts Inline into 'reportbug' mode, which is what you want if you desire to report a
           bug.

       "rewrite_config_file"
           Default is 0, but setting "rewrite_config_file => 1" will mean that the existing
           configuration file in the Inline "directory" will be overwritten.  (This is useful if
           the existing config file is not up to date as regards supported languages.)

       "warnings"
           This option tells Inline whether to print certain warnings. Default is 1.

INLINE CONFIGURATION SHORTCUTS

       This is a list of all the shortcut configuration options currently available for Inline.
       Specify them from the command line when running Inline scripts.

           perl -MInline=noclean inline_script.pl

       or

           perl -MInline=info,force,noclean inline_script.pl

       You can specify multiple shortcuts separated by commas. They are not case sensitive. You
       can also specify shortcuts inside the Inline program like this:

           use Inline 'info', 'force', 'noclean';

       NOTE: If a 'use Inline' statement is used to set shortcuts, it can not be
             used for additional purposes.

       "clean"
           Tells Inline to remove any build directories that may be lying around in your build
           area. Normally these directories get removed immediately after a successful build.
           Exceptions are when the build fails, or when you use the "noclean" or "reportbug"
           options.

       "force"
           Forces the code to be recompiled, even if everything is up to date.

       "global"
           Turns on the "global_load" option.

       "info"
           This is a very useful option when you want to know what's going on under the hood. It
           tells Inline to print helpful information to "STDERR". Among the things that get
           printed is a list of which Inline functions were successfully bound to Perl.

       "noclean"
           Tells Inline to leave the build files after compiling.

       "noisy"
           Use the "build_noisy" option to print messages during a build.

       "reportbug"
           Puts Inline into "reportbug" mode, which does special processing when you want to
           report a bug. "reportbug" also automatically forces a build, and doesn't clean up
           afterwards. This is so that you can tar and mail the build directory to me.
           "reportbug" will print exact instructions on what to do.  Please read and follow them
           carefully.

           NOTE: "reportbug" informs you to use the tar command. If your system does not
                 have tar, please use the equivalent "zip" command.

       "safe"
           Turns "safemode" on. "untaint" will turn this on automatically. While this mode
           performs extra security checking, it does not guarantee safety.

       "site_install"
           This parameter used to be used for creating installable Inline modules. It has been
           removed from Inline altogether and replaced with a much simpler and more powerful
           mechanism, "Inline::MakeMaker". See the section below on how to create modules with
           Inline.

       "_testing"
           Used internally by Ct09parser.t and Ct10callback.t(in the Inline::C test suite).
           Setting this option with Inline::C will mean that files named "parser_id" and
           "void_test" are created in the "./Inline_test" directory, creating that directory if
           it doesn't already exist. The files (but not the "./Inline_test directory") are
           cleaned up by calling "Inline::C::_testing_cleanup()". Also used by
           "t/06rewrite_config.t" to trigger a warning.

       "timers"
           Turn on "build_timers" to get extra diagnostic info about builds.

       "unsafe"
           Turns "safemode" off. Use this in combination with "untaint" for slightly faster
           startup time under "-T". Only use this if you are sure the environment is safe.

       "untaint"
           Turn the "untaint" option on. Used with "-T" switch. In terms of secure practices,
           this is definitely not a recommended way of dealing with taint checking, but it's the
           only option currently available with Inline. Use it at your own risk.

       "version"
           Tells Inline to report its release version.

WRITING MODULES WITH INLINE

       The current preferred way to author CPAN modules with Inline is to use Inline::Module
       (distributed separately). Inline ships with Inline::MakeMaker, which helps you set up a
       Makefile.PL that invokes Inline at install time to compile all the code before it gets
       installed, but the resulting module still depends on Inline and the language support
       module like Inline::C. In order to avoid this dependency, what you really want to do is
       convert your distribution to plain XS before uploading it to CPAN. Inline::Module fills
       that role, and also integrates well with more modern authoring tools.

       See Inline::Module for details on that approach, or continue reading below for the older
       Inline::MakeMaker technique.

       Let's say that you wanted to write a module called "Math::Simple". Start by using the
       following command:

           h2xs -PAXn Math::Simple

       This will generate a bunch of files that form a skeleton of what you need for a
       distributable module. (Read the h2xs manpage to find out what the options do) Next, modify
       the "Simple.pm" file to look like this:

           package Math::Simple;
           $VERSION = '1.23';

           use base 'Exporter';
           @EXPORT_OK = qw(add subtract);
           use strict;

           use Inline C => 'DATA',
                      version => '1.23',
                      name => 'Math::Simple';

           # The following Inline->init() call is optional - see below for more info.
           #Inline->init();

           1;

           __DATA__

           =pod

           =cut

           __C__
           int add(int x, int y) {
             return x + y;
           }

           int subtract(int x, int y) {
             return x - y;
           }

       The important things to note here are that you must specify a "name" and "version"
       parameter. The "name" must match your module's package name. The "version" parameter must
       match your module's $VERSION variable and they must be considered valid by
       "version::parse".

       NOTE: These are Inline's sanity checks to make sure you know what you're doing
             before uploading your code to CPAN. They insure that once the module has
             been installed on someone's system, the module would not get
             automatically recompiled for any reason. This makes Inline based modules
             work in exactly the same manner as XS based ones.

       Finally, you need to modify the Makefile.PL. Simply change:

           use ExtUtils::MakeMaker;

       to

           use Inline::MakeMaker;

       And, in order that the module build work correctly in the cpan shell, add the following
       directive to the Makefile.PL's WriteMakefile():

           CONFIGURE_REQUIRES  =>  {
               'Inline::MakeMaker'     => 0.45,
               'ExtUtils::MakeMaker'   => 6.52,
           },

       This "CONFIGURE_REQUIRES" directive ensures that the cpan shell will install Inline on the
       user's machine (if it's not already present) before building your Inline-based module.
       Specifying of "ExtUtils::MakeMaker => 6.52," is optional, and can be omitted if you like.
       It ensures only that some harmless warnings relating to the "CONFIGURE_REQUIRES" directive
       won't be emitted during the building of the module. It also means, of course, that
       ExtUtils::Makemaker will first be updated on the user's machine unless the user already
       has version 6.52 or later.

       If the "Inline->init();" is not done then, having installed Math::Simple, a warning that
       "One or more DATA sections were not processed by Inline" will appear when (and only when)
       Math::Simple is loaded by a "require call. It's a harmless warning - and if you're
       prepared to live with it, then there's no need to make the "Inline->init();" call.

       When the person installing "Math::Simple" does a ""make"", the generated Makefile will
       invoke Inline in such a way that the C code will be compiled and the executable code will
       be placed into the "./blib" directory. Then when a ""make install"" is done, the module
       will be copied into the appropriate Perl sitelib directory (which is where an installed
       module should go).

       Now all you need to do is:

           perl Makefile.PL
           make dist

       That will generate the file "Math-Simple-0.20.tar.gz" which is a distributable package.
       (It will also generate some harmless warnings in relation to "CONFIGURE_REQUIRES" unless
       the version of your ExtUtils::MakeMaker is 6.52 or later.) That's all there is to it.

       IMPORTANT NOTE: Although the above steps will produce a workable module, you still have a
       few more responsibilities as a budding new CPAN author. You need to write lots of
       documentation and write lots of tests. Take a look at some of the better CPAN modules for
       ideas on creating a killer test harness.  Actually, don't listen to me, go read these:

       •   perldoc perlnewmod

       •   <http://www.cpan.org/modules/04pause.html>

       •   <http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html>

HOW INLINE WORKS

       In reality, Inline just automates everything you would need to do if you were going to do
       it by hand (using XS, etc).

       Inline performs the following steps:

       •   Receive the Source Code

           Inline gets the source code from your script or module with a statements like the
           following:

               use Inline C => "Source-Code";

           or

               use Inline;
               bind Inline C => "Source-Code";

           where "C" is the programming language of the source code, and "Source- Code" is a
           string, a file name, an array reference, or the special 'DATA' keyword.

           Since Inline is coded in a ""use"" statement, everything is done during Perl's compile
           time. If anything needs to be done that will affect the "Source- Code", it needs to be
           done in a "BEGIN" block that is before the ""use Inline ..."" statement. If you really
           need to specify code to Inline at runtime, you can use the "bind()" method.

           Source code that is stowed in the 'DATA' section of your code, is read in by an "INIT"
           subroutine in Inline. That's because the "DATA" filehandle is not available at compile
           time.

       •   Check if the Source Code has been Built

           Inline only needs to build the source code if it has not yet been built. It
           accomplishes this seemingly magical task in an extremely simple and straightforward
           manner. It runs the source text through the "Digest::MD5" module to produce a 128-bit
           "fingerprint" which is virtually unique. The fingerprint along with a bunch of other
           contingency information is stored in a ".inl" file that sits next to your executable
           object. For instance, the "C" code from a script called "example.pl" might create
           these files:

               example_pl_3a9a.so
               example_pl_3a9a.inl

           If all the contingency information matches the values stored in the ".inl" file, then
           proceed to step 8. (No compilation is necessary)

       •   Find a Place to Build and Install

           At this point Inline knows it needs to build the source code. The first thing to
           figure out is where to create the great big mess associated with compilation, and
           where to put the object when it's done.

           By default Inline will try to build and install under the first place that meets one
           of the following conditions:

           1.  The DIRECTORY= config option; if specified

           2.  The "PERL_INLINE_DIRECTORY" environment variable; if set

           3.  ".Inline/" (in current directory); if exists and "$PWD != $HOME"

           4.  bin.Inline (in directory of your script); if exists

           5.  "~/.Inline/" - if exists

           6.  "./_Inline/" - if exists

           7.  "bin/_Inline" - if exists

           8.  Create "./_Inline/" - if possible

           9.  Create "bin/_Inline/" - if possible

           Failing that, Inline will croak. This is rare and easily remedied by just making a
           directory that Inline will use.

           If the "PERL_INSTALL_ROOT" Environment Variable has been set, you will need to make
           special provision for that if the 'make install' phase of your Inline scripts are to
           succeed.

           If the module option is being compiled for permanent installation, then Inline will
           only use "./_Inline/" to build in, and the $Config{installsitearch} directory to
           install the executable in. This action is caused by Inline::MakeMaker, and is intended
           to be used in modules that are to be distributed on the CPAN, so that they get
           installed in the proper place.

       •   Parse the Source for Semantic Cues

           Inline::C uses the module "Parse::RecDescent" to parse through your chunks of C source
           code and look for things that it can create run-time bindings to. In "C" it looks for
           all of the function definitions and breaks them down into names and data types. These
           elements are used to correctly bind the "C" function to a "Perl" subroutine. Other
           Inline languages like Python and Java actually use the "python" and "javac" modules to
           parse the Inline code.

       •   Create the Build Environment

           Now Inline can take all of the gathered information and create an environment to build
           your source code into an executable. Without going into all the details, it just
           creates the appropriate directories, creates the appropriate source files including an
           XS file (for C) and a "Makefile.PL".

       •   Build the Code and Install the Executable

           The planets are in alignment. Now for the easy part. Inline just does what you would
           do to install a module. "`perl Makefile.PL && make && make test && make install>". If
           something goes awry, Inline will croak with a message indicating where to look for
           more info.

       •   Tidy Up

           By default, Inline will remove all of the mess created by the build process, assuming
           that everything worked. If the build fails, Inline will leave everything intact, so
           that you can debug your errors. Setting the "noclean" shortcut option will also stop
           Inline from cleaning up.

       •   DynaLoad the Executable

           For C (and C++), Inline uses the "DynaLoader::bootstrap" method to pull your external
           module into "Perl" space. Now you can call all of your external functions like Perl
           subroutines.

           Other languages like Python and Java, provide their own loaders.

SEE ALSO

       For information about using Inline with C see Inline::C.

       For sample programs using Inline with C see Inline::C-Cookbook.

       For "Formerly Answered Questions" about Inline, see Inline-FAQ.

       For information on supported languages and platforms see Inline-Support.

       For information on writing your own Inline Language Support Module, see Inline-API.

       Inline's mailing list is inline@perl.org

       To subscribe, send email to inline-subscribe@perl.org

BUGS AND DEFICIENCIES

       When reporting a bug, please do the following:

       •   Put "use Inline 'reportbug';" at the top of your code, or use the command line option
           "perl -MInline=reportbug ...".

       •   Run your code.

       •   Follow the printed directions.

AUTHOR

       Ingy döt Net <ingy@cpan.org>

       Sisyphus <sisyphus@cpan.org> fixed some bugs and is current co-maintainer.

COPYRIGHT

       •   Copyright 2000-2019. Ingy döt Net.

       •   Copyright 2008, 2010-2014. Sisyphus.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.

       See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>