File::Slurp(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation File::Slurp(3)
NAME
File::Slurp - Efficient Reading/Writing of Complete Files
SYNOPSIS
use File::Slurp;
my $text = read_file( 'filename' ) ;
my @lines = read_file( 'filename' ) ;
write_file( 'filename', @lines ) ;
use File::Slurp qw( slurp ) ;
my $text = slurp( 'filename' ) ;
DESCRIPTION
This module provides subs that allow you to read or write entire files with one simple call. They are
designed to be simple to use, have flexible ways to pass in or get the file contents and to be very
efficient. There is also a sub to read in all the files in a directory other than "." and ".."
These slurp/spew subs work for files, pipes and sockets, and stdio, pseudo-files, and DATA.
read_file
This sub reads in an entire file and returns its contents to the caller. In list context it will
return a list of lines (using the current value of $/ as the separator including support for
paragraph mode when it is set to ''). In scalar context it returns the entire file as a single
scalar.
my $text = read_file( 'filename' ) ;
my @lines = read_file( 'filename' ) ;
The first argument to "read_file" is the filename and the rest of the arguments are key/value pairs
which are optional and which modify the behavior of the call. Other than binmode the options all
control how the slurped file is returned to the caller.
If the first argument is a file handle reference or I/O object (if ref is true), then that handle is
slurped in. This mode is supported so you slurp handles such as "DATA", "STDIN". See the test
handle.t for an example that does "open( '-|' )" and child process spews data to the parant which
slurps it in. All of the options that control how the data is returned to the caller still work in
this case.
NOTE: as of version 9999.06, read_file works correctly on the "DATA" handle. It used to need a
sysseek workaround but that is now handled when needed by the module itself.
You can optionally request that "slurp()" is exported to your code. This is an alias for read_file
and is meant to be forward compatible with Perl 6 (which will have slurp() built-in).
The options are:
binmode
If you set the binmode option, then the file will be slurped in binary mode.
my $bin_data = read_file( $bin_file, binmode => ':raw' ) ;
NOTE: this actually sets the O_BINARY mode flag for sysopen. It probably should call binmode and pass
its argument to support other file modes.
array_ref
If this boolean option is set, the return value (only in scalar context) will be an array reference
which contains the lines of the slurped file. The following two calls are equivalent:
my $lines_ref = read_file( $bin_file, array_ref => 1 ) ;
my $lines_ref = [ read_file( $bin_file ) ] ;
scalar_ref
If this boolean option is set, the return value (only in scalar context) will be an scalar reference
to a string which is the contents of the slurped file. This will usually be faster than returning the
plain scalar.
my $text_ref = read_file( $bin_file, scalar_ref => 1 ) ;
buf_ref
You can use this option to pass in a scalar reference and the slurped file contents will be stored in
the scalar. This can be used in conjunction with any of the other options.
my $text_ref = read_file( $bin_file, buf_ref => \$buffer,
array_ref => 1 ) ;
my @lines = read_file( $bin_file, buf_ref => \$buffer ) ;
blk_size
You can use this option to set the block size used when slurping from an already open handle (like
\*STDIN). It defaults to 1MB.
my $text_ref = read_file( $bin_file, blk_size => 10_000_000,
array_ref => 1 ) ;
err_mode
You can use this option to control how read_file behaves when an error occurs. This option defaults
to 'croak'. You can set it to 'carp' or to 'quiet to have no error handling. This code wants to carp
and then read abother file if it fails.
my $text_ref = read_file( $file, err_mode => 'carp' ) ;
unless ( $text_ref ) {
# read a different file but croak if not found
$text_ref = read_file( $another_file ) ;
}
# process ${$text_ref}
write_file
This sub writes out an entire file in one call.
write_file( 'filename', @data ) ;
The first argument to "write_file" is the filename. The next argument is an optional hash reference
and it contains key/values that can modify the behavior of "write_file". The rest of the argument
list is the data to be written to the file.
write_file( 'filename', {append => 1 }, @data ) ;
write_file( 'filename', {binmode => ':raw' }, $buffer ) ;
As a shortcut if the first data argument is a scalar or array reference, it is used as the only data
to be written to the file. Any following arguments in @_ are ignored. This is a faster way to pass in
the output to be written to the file and is equivilent to the "buf_ref" option. These following pairs
are equivilent but the pass by reference call will be faster in most cases (especially with larger
files).
write_file( 'filename', \$buffer ) ;
write_file( 'filename', $buffer ) ;
write_file( 'filename', \@lines ) ;
write_file( 'filename', @lines ) ;
If the first argument is a file handle reference or I/O object (if ref is true), then that handle is
slurped in. This mode is supported so you spew to handles such as \*STDOUT. See the test handle.t for
an example that does "open( '-|' )" and child process spews data to the parant which slurps it in.
All of the options that control how the data is passes into "write_file" still work in this case.
"write_file" returns 1 upon successfully writing the file or undef if it encountered an error.
The options are:
binmode
If you set the binmode option, then the file will be written in binary mode.
write_file( $bin_file, {binmode => ':raw'}, @data ) ;
NOTE: this actually sets the O_BINARY mode flag for sysopen. It probably should call binmode and pass
its argument to support other file modes.
buf_ref
You can use this option to pass in a scalar reference which has the data to be written. If this is
set then any data arguments (including the scalar reference shortcut) in @_ will be ignored. These
are equivilent:
write_file( $bin_file, { buf_ref => \$buffer } ) ;
write_file( $bin_file, \$buffer ) ;
write_file( $bin_file, $buffer ) ;
atomic
If you set this boolean option, the file will be written to in an atomic fashion. A temporary file
name is created by appending the pid ($$) to the file name argument and that file is spewed to. After
the file is closed it is renamed to the original file name (and rename is an atomic operation on most
OS's). If the program using this were to crash in the middle of this, then the file with the pid
suffix could be left behind.
append
If you set this boolean option, the data will be written at the end of the current file.
write_file( $file, {append => 1}, @data ) ;
"write_file" croaks if it cannot open the file. It returns true if it succeeded in writing out the
file and undef if there was an error. (Yes, I know if it croaks it can't return anything but that is
for when I add the options to select the error handling mode).
no_clobber
If you set this boolean option, an existing file will not be overwritten.
write_file( $file, {no_clobber => 1}, @data ) ;
err_mode
You can use this option to control how "write_file" behaves when an error occurs. This option
defaults to 'croak'. You can set it to 'carp' or to 'quiet' to have no error handling other than the
return value. If the first call to "write_file" fails it will carp and then write to another file. If
the second call to "write_file" fails, it will croak.
unless ( write_file( $file, { err_mode => 'carp', \$data ) ;
# write a different file but croak if not found
write_file( $other_file, \$data ) ;
}
overwrite_file
This sub is just a typeglob alias to write_file since write_file always overwrites an existing file.
This sub is supported for backwards compatibility with the original version of this module. See
write_file for its API and behavior.
append_file
This sub will write its data to the end of the file. It is a wrapper around write_file and it has the
same API so see that for the full documentation. These calls are equivilent:
append_file( $file, @data ) ;
write_file( $file, {append => 1}, @data ) ;
read_dir
This sub reads all the file names from directory and returns them to the caller but "." and ".." are
removed by default.
my @files = read_dir( '/path/to/dir' ) ;
It croaks if it cannot open the directory.
In a list context "read_dir" returns a list of the entries in the directory. In a scalar context it
returns an array reference which has the entries.
keep_dot_dot
If this boolean option is set, "." and ".." are not removed from the list of files.
my @all_files = read_dir( '/path/to/dir', keep_dot_dot => 1 ) ;
EXPORT
read_file write_file overwrite_file append_file read_dir
SEE ALSO
An article on file slurping in extras/slurp_article.pod. There is also a benchmarking script in
extras/slurp_bench.pl.
BUGS
If run under Perl 5.004, slurping from the DATA handle will fail as that requires B.pm which didn't
get into core until 5.005.
AUTHOR
Uri Guttman, <uri@stemsystems.com>
perl v5.8.8 2006-02-16 File::Slurp(3)
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