NAME

Package::Reaper - pseudo-garbage-collection for packages

VERSION

version 1.106

SYNOPSIS

    use Package::Generator;
    use Package::Reaper;

    {
      my $package = Package::Generator->new_package;
      my $reaper  = Package::Reaper->new($package);
      ...
    }

    # at this point, $package stash has been deleted

DESCRIPTION

This module allows you to create simple objects which, when destroyed, delete a given package. This lets you approximate lexically scoped packages.

INTERFACE

new

  my $reaper = Package::Reaper->new($package);

This returns the newly generated package reaper. When the reaper goes out of scope and is garbage collected, it will delete the symbol table entry for the package.

package

  my $package = $reaper->package;

This method returns the package which will be reaped.

is_armed

  if ($reaper->is_armed) { ... }

This method returns true if the reaper is armed and false otherwise. Reapers always start out armed. A disarmed reaper will not actually reap when destroyed.

disarm

  $reaper->disarm;

This method disarms the reaper, so that it will not reap the package when it is destroyed.

arm

  $reaper->arm;

This method arms the reaper, so that it will reap its package when it is destroyed. By default, new reapers are armed.

AUTHOR

Ricardo SIGNES <rjbs@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2005 by Ricardo SIGNES.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.