Tie::Scalar::Timeout - Scalar variables that time out
version 2.101420
use Tie::Scalar::Timeout; tie my $k, 'Tie::Scalar::Timeout', EXPIRES => '+2s'; $k = 123; sleep(3); # $k is now undef tie my $m, 'Tie::Scalar::Timeout', NUM_USES => 3, VALUE => 456; tie my $n, 'Tie::Scalar::Timeout', VALUE => 987, NUM_USES => 1, POLICY => 777; tie my $p, 'Tie::Scalar::Timeout', VALUE => 654, NUM_USES => 1, POLICY => \&expired; sub expired { our $is_expired; $is_expired++ }
This module allows you to tie a scalar variable whose value will be reset (subject to an expiration policy) after a certain time and/or a certain number of uses. One possible application for this module might be to time out session variables in mod_perl programs.
When tying, you can specify named arguments in the form of a hash. The following named parameters are supported:
EXPIRES
Use EXPIRES to specify an interval or absolute time after which the value will be reset. (Technically, the value will still be there, but the module's FETCH sub will return the value as dictated by the expiration policy.)
Values for the EXPIRES field are modeled after Netscape's cookie expiration times. Except, of course, that negative values don't really make sense in a universe with linear, one-way time. The following forms are all valid for the EXPIRES field:
+30s 30 seconds from now +10m ten minutes from now +1h one hour from now +3M in three months +10y in ten years time 25-Apr-2001 00:40:33 at the indicated time & date
Assigning a value to the variable causes EXPIRES to be reset to the original value.
VALUE
Using the VALUE hash key, you can specify an initial value for the variable.
NUM_USES
Alternatively or in addition to EXPIRES, you can also specify a maximum number of times the variable may be read from before it expires. If both EXPIRES and NUM_USES are set, the variable will expire when either condition becomes true. If NUM_USES isn't set or set to a negative value, it won't influence the expiration process.
Assigning a value to the variable causes NUM_USES to be reset to the original value.
POLICY
The expiration policy determines what happens to the variable's value when it expires. If you don't specify a policy, the variable will be undef after it has expired. You can specify either a scalar value or a code reference as the value of the POLICY parameter. If you specify a scalar value, that value will be returned after the variable has expired. Thus, the default expiration policy is equivalent to
undef
POLICY => undef
If you specify a code reference as the value of the POLICY parameter, that code will be called when the variable value is FETCH()ed after it has expired. This might be used to set some other variable, or reset the variable to a different value, for example.
FETCH()
See perlmodinstall for information and options on installing Perl modules.
No bugs have been reported.
Please report any bugs or feature requests through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Tie-Scalar-Timeout.
The latest version of this module is available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Visit http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ to find a CPAN site near you, or see http://search.cpan.org/dist/Tie-Scalar-Timeout/.
The development version lives at http://github.com/hanekomu/Tie-Scalar-Timeout/. Instead of sending patches, please fork this project using the standard git and github infrastructure.
Marcel Gruenauer <marcel@cpan.org>
This software is copyright (c) 2003 by Marcel Gruenauer.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
To install Tie::Scalar::Timeout, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Tie::Scalar::Timeout
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Tie::Scalar::Timeout
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.