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 <bug-module-load@rt.cpan.org<gt>.

#AUTHOR

This module by Jos Boumans <kane@cpan.org>.

#COPYRIGHT

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

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