asterisk use

[smist]

Hello. I'm using find2perl to generate some code and the code below that was generated doesn't make sense to me. What are the asterisks used for? I know I've seen something like this before but I cannot remember where and how it works. Thanks!

use vars qw/*name *dir *prune/;
*name   = *File::Find::name;
*dir    = *File::Find::dir;
*prune  = *File::Find::prune;

[davido]

Those are typeglobs, and are being used to make aliases to variables embedded within the File::Find module.

For example, $name will be an alias to $File::Find::name.

That way, the package global, $name, which presumably resides in package main (otherwise known as $main::name) will be the same variable as $File::Find::name; a package global in the File::Find module.

[madbombX]

To slightly extend davido's explanation with a more concrete example (because that's how I learn anyway):

This first example uses the full variable name to find all instances of mail.log.* in the current directory and pushes the results on @files.

use File::Find;
find( sub { push @files, $File::Find::name if -f && /mail.log.*/ }, '.
+');

This second example does the same thing only using the glob'd version of the variable name.

use File::Find;
use vars qw/*name/;
*name   = *File::Find::name;
find( sub { push @files, $name if -f && /mail.log.*/ }, '.');

[smist]

In the subroutine named "wanted" that find2perl creates there is usage of the "&&" operator. If I understand it correctly, it's evaluating each expression, and if they evaluate to "true" it prints $name. Is the last "&&" necessary? There are no expressions after it; just goes to the print statement.



sub wanted {
    my ($dev,$ino,$mode,$nlink,$uid,$gid);

    (($dev,$ino,$mode,$nlink,$uid,$gid) = lstat($_)) &&
    -d _ &&
    print("$name\n");
    
}

[smist]

Thanks guys. I knew I read about this somewhere before. I just couldn't remember what it was. I haven't used globbing yet and I'm pretty new to Perl.

Your help is appreciated!

[imp]

See perldata - typeglobs