NAME

Raku port of Perl's caller() built-in

SYNOPSIS

use P5caller;

sub foo { bar }
  sub bar { say caller[3] }        # foo

sub baz { say caller(:scalar) }  # GLOBAL
  my $package = caller

DESCRIPTION

This module tries to mimic the behaviour of Perl's caller built-in as closely as possible in the Raku Programming Language.

ORIGINAL PERL 5 DOCUMENTATION

caller EXPR
    caller  Returns the context of the current pure perl subroutine call. In
            scalar context, returns the caller's package name if there is a
            caller (that is, if we're in a subroutine or "eval" or "require")
            and the undefined value otherwise. caller never returns XS subs
            and they are skipped. The next pure perl sub will appear instead
            of the XS sub in caller's return values. In list context, caller
            returns

# 0         1          2
                ($package, $filename, $line) = caller;

With EXPR, it returns some extra information that the debugger
            uses to print a stack trace. The value of EXPR indicates how many
            call frames to go back before the current one.

#  0         1          2      3            4
                ($package, $filename, $line, $subroutine, $hasargs,

#  5          6          7            8       9         10
                $wantarray, $evaltext, $is_require, $hints, $bitmask, $hinthash)
                 = caller($i);

Here, $subroutine is the function that the caller called (rather
            than the function containing the caller). Note that $subroutine
            may be "(eval)" if the frame is not a subroutine call, but an
            "eval". In such a case additional elements $evaltext and
            $is_require are set: $is_require is true if the frame is created
            by a "require" or "use" statement, $evaltext contains the text of
            the "eval EXPR" statement. In particular, for an "eval BLOCK"
            statement, $subroutine is "(eval)", but $evaltext is undefined.
            (Note also that each "use" statement creates a "require" frame
            inside an "eval EXPR" frame.) $subroutine may also be "(unknown)"
            if this particular subroutine happens to have been deleted from
            the symbol table. $hasargs is true if a new instance of @_ was set
            up for the frame. $hints and $bitmask contain pragmatic hints that
            the caller was compiled with. $hints corresponds to $^H, and
            $bitmask corresponds to "${^WARNING_BITS}". The $hints and
            $bitmask values are subject to change between versions of Perl,
            and are not meant for external use.

$hinthash is a reference to a hash containing the value of "%^H"
            when the caller was compiled, or "undef" if "%^H" was empty. Do
            not modify the values of this hash, as they are the actual values
            stored in the optree.

Furthermore, when called from within the DB package in list
            context, and with an argument, caller returns more detailed
            information: it sets the list variable @DB::args to be the
            arguments with which the subroutine was invoked.

Be aware that the optimizer might have optimized call frames away
            before "caller" had a chance to get the information. That means
            that caller(N) might not return information about the call frame
            you expect it to, for "N > 1". In particular, @DB::args might have
            information from the previous time "caller" was called.

Be aware that setting @DB::args is best effort, intended for
            debugging or generating backtraces, and should not be relied upon.
            In particular, as @_ contains aliases to the caller's arguments,
            Perl does not take a copy of @_, so @DB::args will contain
            modifications the subroutine makes to @_ or its contents, not the
            original values at call time. @DB::args, like @_, does not hold
            explicit references to its elements, so under certain cases its
            elements may have become freed and reallocated for other variables
            or temporary values. Finally, a side effect of the current
            implementation is that the effects of "shift @_" can normally be
            undone (but not "pop @_" or other splicing, and not if a reference
            to @_ has been taken, and subject to the caveat about reallocated
            elements), so @DB::args is actually a hybrid of the current state
            and initial state of @_. Buyer beware.

PORTING CAVEATS

In Perl, caller can return an 11 element list. In the Raku implementation only the first 4 elements are the same as in Perl: package, filename, line, subname. The fifth element is actually the Sub or Method object and as such provides further introspection possibilities not found in Perl.

As there is no such thing as scalar or list context in Raku, one must specify a :scalar named parameter to emulate the scalar context return value.

AUTHOR

Elizabeth Mattijsen <[email protected]>

Source can be located at: https://github.com/lizmat/P5caller . Comments and Pull Requests are welcome.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 Elizabeth Mattijsen

Re-imagined from Perl as part of the CPAN Butterfly Plan.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the Artistic License 2.0.