http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=721372


in reply to Re: disable functions if module not installed
in thread disable functions if module not installed

require returns true on success, and string-eval eats memory :)
BEGIN { $is_magick = eval {require Image::Magick;}; } C:\>perl -e"print require CGI;" 1 C:\>perl -e"print require CGIshamalamadingdong;" Can't locate CGIshamalamadingdong.pm in @INC

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Re^3: disable functions if module not installed
by almut (Canon) on Nov 04, 2008 at 13:59 UTC
    require returns true on success,

    yes, and false (undef) otherwise. That was the idea :)

    string-eval eats memory

    Why would that be (in this case, where the string is just a few bytes)?  Any tests/data to prove the claim?

    C:\>perl -e"print require CGI;" 1 C:\>perl -e"print require CGIshamalamadingdong;" Can't locate CGIshamalamadingdong.pm in @INC

    Not sure what this is meant to demonstrate — I thought we were talking about eval "require ...":

    $ perl -E '$ok = eval "require CGI" ? 1:0; say $ok' 1 $ perl -E '$ok = eval "require CGIshamalamadingdong" ? 1:0; say $ok' 0

    (note: swap single and double quotes if you're on Windows)