Provided by: libio-callback-perl_2.00-1_all 
NAME
IO::Callback - Emulate file interface for a code reference
VERSION
Version 2.00
SYNOPSIS
"IO::Callback" provides an easy way to produce a phoney read-only filehandle that calls
back to your own code when it needs data to satisfy a read. This is useful if you want to
use a library module that expects to read data from a filehandle, but you want the data to
come from some other source and you don't want to read it all into memory and use
IO::String.
use IO::Callback;
my $fh = IO::Callback->new('<', sub { ... ; return $data });
my $object = Some::Class->new_from_file($fh);
Similarly, IO::Callback allows you to wrap up a coderef as a write-only filehandle, which
you can pass to a library module that expects to write its output to a filehandle.
my $fh = IO::Callback->new('>', sub { my $data = shift ; ... });
$object->dump_to_file($fh);
CONSTRUCTOR
"new ( MODE, CODEREF [,ARG ...] )"
Returns a filehandle object encapsulating the coderef.
MODE must be either "<" for a read-only filehandle or ">" for a write-only filehandle.
For a read-only filehandle, the callback coderef will be invoked in a scalar context each
time more data is required to satisfy a read. It must return some more input data (at
least one byte) as a string. If there is no more data to be read, then the callback should
return either "undef" or the empty string. If ARG values were supplied to the constructor,
then they will be passed to the callback each time it is invoked.
For a write-only filehandle, the callback will be invoked each time there is data to be
written. The first argument will be the data as a string, which will always be at least
one byte long. If ARG values were supplied to the constructor, then they will be passed as
additional arguments to the callback. When the filehandle is closed, the callback will be
invoked once with the empty string as its first argument.
To simulate a non-fatal error on the file, the callback should set $! and return the
special value "IO::Callback::Error". See examples 6 and 7 below.
EXAMPLES
Example 1
To generate a filehandle from which an infinite number of "x" characters can be read:
my $fh = IO::Callback->new('<', sub {"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"});
my $x = $fh->getc; # $x now contains "x"
read $fh, $x, 5; # $x now contains "xxxxx"
Example 2
A filehandle from which 1000 "foo" lines can be read before EOF:
my $count = 0;
my $fh = IO::Callback->new('<', sub {
return if ++$count > 1000; # EOF
return "foo\n";
});
my $x = <$fh>; # $x now contains "foo\n"
read $fh, $x, 2; # $x now contains "fo"
read $fh, $x, 2; # $x now contains "o\n"
read $fh, $x, 20; # $x now contains "foo\nfoo\nfoo\nfoo\nfoo\n"
my @foos = <$fh>; # @foos now contains ("foo\n") x 993
The example above uses a "closure" (a special kind of anonymous sub, see
<http://perldoc.perl.org/perlfaq7.html#What's-a-closure?>) to allow the callback to
keep track of how many lines it has returned. You don't have to use a closure if you
don't want to, since "IO::Callback" will forward extra constructor arguments to the
callback. This example could be re-written as:
my $count = 0;
my $fh = IO::Callback->new('<', \&my_callback, \$count);
my $x = <$fh>; # $x now contains "foo\n"
read $fh, $x, 2; # $x now contains "fo"
read $fh, $x, 2; # $x now contains "o\n"
read $fh, $x, 20; # $x now contains "foo\nfoo\nfoo\nfoo\nfoo\n"
my @foos = <$fh>; # @foos now contains ("foo\n") x 993
sub my_callback {
my $count_ref = shift;
return if ++$$count_ref > 1000; # EOF
return "foo\n";
};
Example 3
To generate a filehandle interface to data drawn from an SQL table:
my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT ...");
$sth->execute;
my $fh = IO::Callback->new('<', sub {
my @row = $sth->fetchrow_array;
return unless @row; # EOF
return join(',', @row) . "\n";
});
# ...
Example 4
You want a filehandle to which data can be written, where the data is discarded but an
exception is raised if the data includes the string "foo".
my $buf = '';
my $fh = IO::Callback->new('>', sub {
$buf .= shift;
die "foo written" if $buf =~ /foo/;
if ($buf =~ /(fo?)\z/) {
# Part way through a "foo", carry over to the next block.
$buf = $1;
} else {
$buf = '';
}
});
Example 5
You have been given an object with a copy_data_out() method that takes a destination
filehandle as an argument. You don't want the data written to a file though, you want
it split into 1024-byte blocks and inserted into an SQL database.
my $blocksize = 1024;
my $sth = $dbh->prepare('INSERT ...');
my $buf = '';
my $fh = IO::Callback->new('>', sub {
$buf .= shift;
while (length $buf >= $blocksize) {
$sth->execute(substr $buf, 0, $blocksize, '');
}
});
$thing->copy_data_out($fh);
if (length $buf) {
# There is a remainder of < $blocksize
$sth->execute($buf);
}
Example 6
You're testing some code that reads data from a file, you want to check that it
behaves as expected if it gets an IO error part way through the file.
use IO::Callback;
use Errno qw/EIO/;
my $block1 = "x" x 10240;
my $block2 = "y" x 10240;
my @blocks = ($block1, $block2);
my $fh = IO::Callback->new('<', sub {
return shift @blocks if @blocks;
$! = EIO;
return IO::Callback::Error;
});
# ...
Example 7
You're testing some code that writes data to a file handle, you want to check that it
behaves as expected if it gets a "file system full" error after it has written the
first 100k of data.
use IO::Callback;
use Errno qw/ENOSPC/;
my $wrote = 0;
my $fh = IO::Callback->new('>', sub {
$wrote += length $_[0];
if ($wrote > 100_000) {
$! = ENOSPC;
return IO::Callback::Error;
}
});
# ...
AUTHOR
Dave Taylor, "<dave.taylor.cpan at gmail.com>"
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
Fails to inter-operate with some library modules that read or write filehandles from
within XS code. I am aware of the following specific cases, please let me know if you run
into any others:
"Digest::MD5::addfile()"
Please report any other bugs or feature requests to "bug- at rt.cpan.org", or through the
web interface at <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=IO::Callback>. I will be
notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make
changes.
SUPPORT
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
perldoc IO::Callback
You can also look for information at:
• RT: CPAN's request tracker
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=IO::Callback>
• AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
<http://annocpan.org/dist/IO::Callback>
• CPAN Ratings
<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/IO::Callback>
• Search CPAN
<http://search.cpan.org/dist/IO::Callback>
SEE ALSO
IO::String, IO::Stringy, "open" in perlfunc
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Adapted from code in IO::String by Gisle Aas.
MANITAINER
This module is currently being maintained by Toby Inkster (TOBYINK) for bug fixes. No
substantial changes or new features are planned.
COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright 1998-2005 Gisle Aas.
Copyright 2009-2010 Dave Taylor.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
terms as Perl itself.