CONTENTS

• NAME
• SYNOPSIS
• DESCRIPTION
  • Difference between load and autoload
• FUNCTIONS
• Rules
• IMPORTS THE FUNCTIONS
• Caveats
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• BUG REPORTS
• AUTHOR
• COPYRIGHT

#NAME

Module::Load - runtime require of both modules and files

#SYNOPSIS

use Module::Load;

my $module = 'Data::Dumper';

load Data::Dumper;     # loads that module, but not import any functions
                       # -> cannot use 'Dumper' function

load 'Data::Dumper';   # ditto
load $module           # tritto

autoload Data::Dumper; # loads that module and imports the default functions
                       # -> can use 'Dumper' function

my $script = 'some/script.pl'
load $script;
load 'some/script.pl';  # use quotes because of punctuations

load thing;             # try 'thing' first, then 'thing.pm'

load CGI, ':all';       # like 'use CGI qw[:standard]'

#DESCRIPTION

Module::Load eliminates the need to know whether you are trying to require either a file or a module.

If you consult perldoc -f require you will see that require will behave differently when given a bareword or a string.

In the case of a string, require assumes you are wanting to load a file. But in the case of a bareword, it assumes you mean a module.

This gives nasty overhead when you are trying to dynamically require modules at runtime, since you will need to change the module notation (Acme::Comment) to a file notation fitting the particular platform you are on.

Module::Load eliminates the need for this overhead and will just DWYM.

#Difference between load and autoload

Module::Load imports the two functions - load and autoload

autoload imports the default functions automatically, but load do not import any functions.

autoload is usable under BEGIN{};.

Both the functions can import the functions that are specified.

Following codes are same.

load File::Spec::Functions, qw/splitpath/;

autoload File::Spec::Functions, qw/splitpath/;

#FUNCTIONS

#load

Loads a specified module.

See "Rules" for detailed loading rule.

#autoload

Loads a specified module and imports the default functions.

Except importing the functions, 'autoload' is same as 'load'.

#load_remote

Loads a specified module to the specified package.

use Module::Load 'load_remote';

my $pkg = 'Other::Package';

load_remote $pkg, 'Data::Dumper'; # load a module to 'Other::Package'
                                  # but do not import 'Dumper' function

A module for loading must be quoted.

Except specifing the package and quoting module name, 'load_remote' is same as 'load'.

#autoload_remote

Loads a specified module and imports the default functions to the specified package.

use Module::Load 'autoload_remote';

my $pkg = 'Other::Package';

autoload_remote $pkg, 'Data::Dumper'; # load a module to 'Other::Package'
                                      # and imports 'Dumper' function

A module for loading must be quoted.

Except specifing the package and quoting module name, 'autoload_remote' is same as 'load_remote'.

#Rules

All functions have the following rules to decide what it thinks you want:

• If the argument has any characters in it other than those matching \w, : or ', it must be a file

• If the argument matches only [\w:'], it must be a module

• If the argument matches only \w, it could either be a module or a file. We will try to find file.pm first in @INC and if that fails, we will try to find file in @INC. If both fail, we die with the respective error messages.

#IMPORTS THE FUNCTIONS

'load' and 'autoload' are imported by default, but 'load_remote' and 'autoload_remote' are not imported.

To use 'load_remote' or 'autoload_remote', specify at 'use'.

#"load","autoload","load_remote","autoload_remote"

Imports the selected functions.

# imports 'load' and 'autoload' (default)
use Module::Load;

# imports 'autoload' only
use Module::Load 'autoload';

# imports 'autoload' and 'autoload_remote', but don't import 'load';
use Module::Load qw/autoload autoload_remote/;

#'all'

Imports all the functions.

use Module::Load 'all'; # imports load, autoload, load_remote, autoload_remote

#'','none',undef

Not import any functions (load and autoload are not imported).

use Module::Load '';

use Module::Load 'none';

use Module::Load undef;

#Caveats

Because of a bug in perl (#19213), at least in version 5.6.1, we have to hardcode the path separator for a require on Win32 to be /, like on Unix rather than the Win32 \. Otherwise perl will not read its own %INC accurately double load files if they are required again, or in the worst case, core dump.

Module::Load cannot do implicit imports, only explicit imports. (in other words, you always have to specify explicitly what you wish to import from a module, even if the functions are in that modules' @EXPORT)

#ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Jonas B. Nielsen for making explicit imports work.

#BUG REPORTS

Please report bugs or other issues to <[email protected]<gt>.

#AUTHOR

This module by Jos Boumans <[email protected]>.

#COPYRIGHT

This library is free software; you may redistribute and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

Perldoc Browser is maintained by Dan Book (DBOOK). Please contact him via the GitHub issue tracker or email regarding any issues with the site itself, search, or rendering of documentation.

The Perl documentation is maintained by the Perl 5 Porters in the development of Perl. Please contact them via the Perl issue tracker, the mailing list, or IRC to report any issues with the contents or format of the documentation.