IO::Capture::Stdout - Capture any output sent to STDOUT # Generic example (Just to give the overall view) use IO::Capture::Stdout; $capture = IO::Capture::Stdout->new(); $capture->start(); # STDOUT Output captured print STDOUT "Test Line One\n"; print STDOUT "Test Line Two\n"; print STDOUT "Test Line Three\n"; $capture->stop(); # STDOUT output sent to wherever it was before 'start' # In 'scalar context' returns next line $line = $capture->read; print "$line"; # prints "Test Line One" $line = $capture->read; print "$line"; # prints "Test Line Two" # move line pointer to line 1 $capture->line_pointer(1); $line = $capture->read; print "$line"; # prints "Test Line One" # Find out current line number $current_line_position = $capture->line_pointer; # In 'List Context' return an array(list) @all_lines = $capture->read; # More useful example 1 - "Using in module tests" # Note: If you don't want to make users install # the IO::Capture module just for your tests, # you can just install in the t/lib directory # of your module and use the lib pragma in # your tests. use lib "t/lib"; use IO::Capture::Stdout; use Test::More; my $capture = IO::Capture::Stdout->new; $capture->start # execute with a bad parameter to make sure get # an error. ok( ! $test("Bad Parameter") ); $capture->stop(); The module "IO::Capture::Stdout", is derived from the abstract class "IO::Capture". See IO::Capture. The purpose of the module (as the name suggests) is to capture any output sent to "STDOUT". After the capture is stopped, the STDOUT filehandle will be reset to the previous location. E.g., If previously redirected to a file, when "IO::Capture->stop" is called, output will start going into that file again. Note: This module won't work with the perl function, system(), or any other operation involving a fork(). If you want to capture the output from a system command, it is faster to use open() or back-ticks. my $output = `/usr/sbin/ls -l 2>&1`;

new
Creates a new capture object. An object can be reused as needed, so will only need to do one of these. Be aware, any data previously captured will be discarded if a new capture session is started.

start
Start capturing data into the "IO::Capture" Object. Can not be called on an object that is already capturing. Can not be called while STDOUT tied to an object. "undef" will be returned on an error.

stop
Stop capturing data and point STDOUT back to it's previous output location I.e., untie STDOUT

read
In Scalar Context Lines are read from the buffer at the position of the "line_pointer", and the pointer is incremented by one. $next_line = $capture->read; In List Context The array is returned. The "line_pointer" is not affected. @buffer = $capture->read; Data lines are returned exactly as they were captured. You may want to use "chomp" on them if you don't want the end of line character(s) while (my $line = $capture->read) { chomp $line; $cat_line = join '', $cat_line, $line; }

line_pointer
Reads or sets the "line_pointer". my $current_line = $capture->line_pointer; $capture->line_pointer(1);

Adding Features
If you would like to sub-class this module to add a feature (method) or two, here is a couple of easy steps. Also see IO::Capture::Overview. Give your package a name package MyPackage; Use this "IO::Capture::Stdout" as your base class like this: package MyPackage; use base qw/IO::Capture::Stdout/; Add your new method like this package MyPackage; use base qw/IO::Capture::Stdout/; sub grep { my $self = shift; for $line ( } IO::Capture::Overview IO::Capture IO::Capture::Stderr Mark Reynolds reynolds@sgi.com Jon Morgan jmorgan@sgi.com Copyright (c) 2003, Mark Reynolds. All Rights Reserved. This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed and/or modified under the same terms as Perl itself.