


IO::File(3p)     Perl Programmers Reference Guide    IO::File(3p)


NAME
       IO::File - supply object methods for filehandles

SYNOPSIS
           use IO::File;

           $fh = new IO::File;
           if ($fh->open("< file")) {
               print <$fh>;
               $fh->close;
           }

           $fh = new IO::File "> file";
           if (defined $fh) {
               print $fh "bar\n";
               $fh->close;
           }

           $fh = new IO::File "file", "r";
           if (defined $fh) {
               print <$fh>;
               undef $fh;       # automatically closes the file
           }

           $fh = new IO::File "file", O_WRONLY|O_APPEND;
           if (defined $fh) {
               print $fh "corge\n";

               $pos = $fh->getpos;
               $fh->setpos($pos);

               undef $fh;       # automatically closes the file
           }

           autoflush STDOUT 1;


DESCRIPTION
       "IO::File" inherits from "IO::Handle" and "IO::Seekable".
       It extends these classes with methods that are specific to
       file handles.

CONSTRUCTOR
       new ( FILENAME [,MODE [,PERMS]] )
           Creates a "IO::File".  If it receives any parameters,
           they are passed to the method "open"; if the open
           fails, the object is destroyed.  Otherwise, it is
           returned to the caller.

       new_tmpfile
           Creates an "IO::File" opened for read/write on a newly
           created temporary file.  On systems where this is pos-
           sible, the temporary file is anonymous (i.e. it is
           unlinked after creation, but held open).  If the



2000-04-06                 perl v5.6.1                          1





IO::File(3p)     Perl Programmers Reference Guide    IO::File(3p)


           temporary file cannot be created or opened, the
           "IO::File" object is destroyed.  Otherwise, it is
           returned to the caller.

METHODS
       open( FILENAME [,MODE [,PERMS]] )
           "open" accepts one, two or three parameters.  With one
           parameter, it is just a front end for the built-in
           "open" function.  With two or three parameters, the
           first parameter is a filename that may include whites-
           pace or other special characters, and the second
           parameter is the open mode, optionally followed by a
           file permission value.

           If "IO::File::open" receives a Perl mode string (">",
           "+<", etc.)  or a ANSI C fopen() mode string ("w",
           "r+", etc.), it uses the basic Perl "open" operator
           (but protects any special characters).

           If "IO::File::open" is given a numeric mode, it passes
           that mode and the optional permissions value to the
           Perl "sysopen" operator.  The permissions default to
           0666.

           For convenience, "IO::File" exports the O_XXX con-
           stants from the Fcntl module, if this module is avail-
           able.

SEE ALSO
       the perlfunc manpage, the I/O Operators entry in the per-
       lop manpage, the IO::Handle manpage the IO::Seekable man-
       page

HISTORY
       Derived from FileHandle.pm by Graham Barr
       <gbarr@pobox.com>.





















2000-04-06                 perl v5.6.1                          2


