plucky (3) Sub::Delete.3pm.gz

Provided by: libsub-delete-perl_1.00002-4_all bug

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.

       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).