


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 manipu-
       lation 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 mod-
       ule also checks to see if a directory called $dir/$arch-
       name/auto exists.  If so the $dir/$archname directory is
       assumed to be a corresponding architecture specific direc-
       tory and is added to @INC in front of $dir.

       To avoid memory leaks, all trailing duplicate entries in
       @INC are removed.

       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.

       The "no lib" statement deletes all instances of each named
       directory from @INC.

       For each directory in LIST (called $dir here) the lib mod-
       ule also checks to see if a directory called $dir/$arch-
       name/auto exists.  If so the $dir/$archname directory is
       assumed to be a corresponding architecture specific



2001-05-24                 perl v5.6.1                          1





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


       directory and is also deleted from @INC.

       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.








































2001-05-24                 perl v5.6.1                          2


