NAME

       MARC::File - Base class for files of MARC records

SYNOPSIS

           use MARC::File::USMARC;

           # If you have weird control fields...
           use MARC::Field;
           MARC::Field->allow_controlfield_tags('FMT', 'LDX');

           my $file = MARC::File::USMARC->in( $filename );

           while ( my $marc = $file->next() ) {
               # Do something
           }
           $file->close();
           undef $file;

EXPORT

       None.

METHODS

   in()
       Opens a file for import. Ordinarily you will use "MARC::File::USMARC" or
       "MARC::File::MicroLIF" to do this.

           my $file = MARC::File::USMARC->in( 'file.marc' );

       Returns a "MARC::File" object, or "undef" on failure. If you encountered an error the
       error message will be stored in $MARC::File::ERROR.

       Optionally you can also pass in a filehandle, and "MARC::File".  will "do the right
       thing".

           my $handle = IO::File->new( 'gunzip -c file.marc.gz |' );
           my $file = MARC::File::USMARC->in( $handle );

   next( [\&filter_func] )
       Reads the next record from the file handle passed in.

       The $filter_func is a reference to a filtering function.  Currently, only USMARC records
       support this.  See MARC::File::USMARC's "decode()" function for details.

       Returns a MARC::Record reference, or "undef" on error.

   skip()
       Skips over the next record in the file.  Same as "next()", without the overhead of parsing
       a record you're going to throw away anyway.

       Returns 1 or undef.

   warnings()
       Simlilar to the methods in MARC::Record and MARC::Batch, "warnings()" will return any
       warnings that have accumulated while processing this file; and as a side-effect will clear
       the warnings buffer.

   close()
       Closes the file, both from the object's point of view, and the actual file.

   write()
       Writes a record to the output file.  This method must be overridden in your subclass.

   decode()
       Decodes a record into a USMARC format.  This method must be overridden in your subclass.

RELATED MODULES

       MARC::Record

TODO

       ·   "out()" method

           We only handle files for input right now.

LICENSE

       This code may be distributed under the same terms as Perl itself.

       Please note that these modules are not products of or supported by the employers of the
       various contributors to the code.

AUTHOR

       Andy Lester, "<andy@petdance.com>"