Re^3: Help with file test operators

[Laurent_R]

the special filehandle _ doesn't seem to be documented in perlvar , don't know why.

Hmm, this may be nitpicking, but I am not sure it can be called a "special filehandle", it is not really a filehandle. IMHO, it is more like a filename (and file path). But I do not know what to call it either. Perhaps we could call this a special alias to the last file submitted to a file test operator or to stat.

One thing is sure. I have been knowing about this possibility for several years, and I usually recognize it when I see it, but whenever I would need to use it (well, not so often, but it happens once in a while), I don't remember what it was exactly, and I spend time finding again the right piece of documentation. The documentation could really be improved on this, with the right cross-references to make it easier to find.

The good thing about this thread is that I believe I'll remember it from now on.

[LanX]

> but I am not sure it can be called a "special filehandle",

Yeah, but that's how it is called in the docs.

And you will see that it behaves like an instance of IO::File - like other filehandles do.

  DB<100> _->test
Can't locate object method "test" via package "IO::File" at (eval 16)[
+multi_perl5db.pl:644] line 2.

And this was the point which made me stumble when I tried to declare a package _; some weeks ago.

[BillKSmith]

One of the main reasons that I prefer paper documents is that it so easy to add a note or reference in the margin. You have just identified a new note for my copy of "Perl in a Nutshell". --thanks

[Anonymous Monk]

One of the main reasons that I prefer paper documents is that it so easy to add a note or reference in the margin. You have just identified a new note for my copy of "Perl in a Nutshell". --thanks

You know :) notes are great ( ... What does _ mean? , About Special Underscore Filehandle ), but you could also perlbug and update for perlvar to mention _ ... cause its like a note :)

[RonW]

As I recall, Project Xanadu tried to address this in a way that did not require the original document to have either links or anchors - and without making a local copy of the original.