What is the correct way to override a Package Method

[unlinker]

O Wise and Kind Monks, may the light of your wisdom shine on me. I recently saw code that over-rode a method in a package by its own version using typeglobs. If sub-classing is not an option, what is the correct, safe and canonical way to do this? Gratitude

[kyle]

I think typeglobs are the way to go if you want to figure out at run time what method to override.

my $package_method = 'Foo::Bar::baz';
my $orig = \&($package_method};
no warnings;
*{$package_method} = sub { pre(); $orig->(@_); post() };

You can also do this:

package Foo::Bar;
sub baz { print "I am the original!\n" }

package main;
sub Foo::Bar::baz { print "I am the new baz!\n" }

Foo::Bar::baz();

Or you can toss in your own definition between a couple package lines anywhere you want. You can also build up a string like the above at run time and wrap it in an eval whenever you're ready.

Note that these various methods can have subtle differences when it comes to caller, and maybe some other stuff.

[tinita]

you can also use Sub::Install which hides all the dirty details about globs and strict from you.

[unlinker]

Thank you. This seems to be the best way to do it. may I trouble you for a small illustrative example? Here is what I want to do. I have a Package written by someone else and I want to override one of the methods in that Package without touching its source. However I want to do it in a way that even if that package calls, I want it to use my version. Thank you once again

[tinita]

uhm, isn't the documentation Sub::Install clear enough?
to give you an example i would just copy&paste from there anyway...