use vs. require

[reneeb]

Hi folks,

I've got one question:

test1.pl:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use A;
my $test = A::B->new(test => 1);

A.pm:

package A;

sub B{
    print "A::B called with args <@_>\n";
    shift;
    return A::B->new(@_);
}

package A::B;

sub new{
    print "A::B::new called with args: <@_>\n";
    return bless {}, shift;
}

1

result:

A::B called with args <>
A::B::new called with args: <A::B>
A::B::new called with args: <A::B=HASH(0x23602c) test 1>
Attempt to bless into a reference at A.pm line 14.

test2.pl:

require A;
my $test = A::B->new(test => 1);

result:

A::B::new called with args: <A::B test 1>

I've search several docs, but haven't found anything that would explain why "use" and a "require" in a BEGIN block have a different behaviour than "require" or a "use"(in a string eval). Why is in one case the subroutine B called (when A is loaded in compile time) and in the other case the subroutine "new" of package A::B is called (when A is loaded in run time)?

Cheers,
Renee