


lib(3p)          Perl Programmers Reference Guide         lib(3p)


NAME
       lib - manipulate @INC at compile time

SYNOPSIS
           use lib LIST;

           no lib LIST;


DESCRIPTION
       This is a small simple module which simplifies the
       manipulation of @INC at compile time.

       It is typically used to add extra directories to perl's
       search path so that later use or require statements will
       find modules which are not located on perl's default
       search path.

       ADDING DIRECTORIES TO @INC

       The parameters to use lib are added to the start of the
       perl search path. Saying

           use lib LIST;

       is almost the same as saying

           BEGIN { unshift(@INC, LIST) }

       For each directory in LIST (called $dir here) the lib
       module also checks to see if a directory called
       $dir/$archname/auto exists.  If so the $dir/$archname
       directory is assumed to be a corresponding architecture
       specific directory and is added to @INC in front of $dir.

       If LIST includes both $dir and $dir/$archname then
       $dir/$archname will be added to @INC twice (if
       $dir/$archname/auto exists).

       DELETING DIRECTORIES FROM @INC

       You should normally only add directories to @INC.  If you
       need to delete directories from @INC take care to only
       delete those which you added yourself or which you are
       certain are not needed by other modules in your script.
       Other modules may have added directories which they need
       for correct operation.

       By default the no lib statement deletes the first instance
       of each named directory from @INC.  To delete multiple
       instances of the same name from @INC you can specify the
       name multiple times.

       To delete all instances of all the specified names from



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lib(3p)          Perl Programmers Reference Guide         lib(3p)


       @INC you can specify ':ALL' as the first parameter of no
       lib. For example:

           no lib qw(:ALL .);

       For each directory in LIST (called $dir here) the lib
       module also checks to see if a directory called
       $dir/$archname/auto exists.  If so the $dir/$archname
       directory is assumed to be a corresponding architecture
       specific directory and is also deleted from @INC.

       If LIST includes both $dir and $dir/$archname then
       $dir/$archname will be deleted from @INC twice (if
       $dir/$archname/auto exists).

       RESTORING ORIGINAL @INC

       When the lib module is first loaded it records the current
       value of @INC in an array @lib::ORIG_INC. To restore @INC
       to that value you can say

           @INC = @lib::ORIG_INC;


SEE ALSO
       FindBin - optional module which deals with paths relative
       to the source file.

AUTHOR
       Tim Bunce, 2nd June 1995.



























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