NAME

       Sub::Delete - Perl module enabling one to delete subroutines

VERSION

       1.00002

SYNOPSIS

           use Sub::Delete;
           sub foo {}
           delete_sub 'foo';
           eval 'foo();1' or die; # dies

DESCRIPTION

       This module provides one function, "delete_sub", that deletes the subroutine whose name is
       passed to it. (To load the module without importing the function, write
       "use Sub::Delete();".)

       This does more than simply undefine the subroutine in the manner of "undef &foo", which
       leaves a stub that can trigger AUTOLOAD (and, consequently, won't work for deleting
       methods).  The subroutine is completely obliterated from the symbol table (though there
       may be references to it elsewhere, including in compiled code).

PREREQUISITES

       This module requires perl 5.8.3 or higher.

LIMITATIONS

       If you take a reference to a glob containing a subroutine, and then delete the subroutine
       with "delete_sub", you will find that the glob you referenced still has a subroutine in
       it. This is because "delete_sub" removes a glob, replaces it with another, and then copies
       the contents of the old glob into the new one, except for the "CODE" slot. (This is nearly
       impossible to fix without breaking constant::lexical.)

BUGS

       If you find any bugs, please report them to the author via e-mail.

AUTHOR & COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2008-10 Father Chrysostomos (sprout at, um, cpan dot org)

       This program is free software; you may redistribute or modify it (or both) under the same
       terms as perl.

SEE ALSO

       perltodo, which has "delete &sub" listed as a possible future feature

       Symbol::Glob and Symbol::Util, both of which predate this module (but I only discovered
       them recently), and which allow one to delete any arbitrary slot from a glob. Neither of
       them takes perl 5.10 constants into account, however. They also both differ from this
       module, in that a subroutine referenced in compiled code can no longer be called if
       deleted from its glob. The entire glob must be replaced (which this module does).