package lib; @ORIG_INC = (); # (avoid typo warning) @ORIG_INC = @INC; # take a handy copy of 'original' value sub import { shift; unshift(@INC, @_); } sub unimport { shift; my $mode = shift if $_[0] =~ m/^:[A-Z]+/; my %names; foreach(@_) { ++$names{$_} }; if ($mode and $mode eq ':ALL') { # Remove ALL instances of each named directory. @INC = grep { !exists $names{$_} } @INC; } else { # Remove INITIAL instance(s) of each named directory. @INC = grep { --$names{$_} < 0 } @INC; } } __END__ =head1 NAME lib - manipulate @INC at compile time =head1 SYNOPSIS use lib LIST; no lib LIST; =head1 DESCRIPTION This is a small simple module which simplifies the manipulation of @INC at compile time. It is typically used to add extra directories to perl's search path so that later C or C statements will find modules which are not located on perl's default search path. =head2 ADDING DIRECTORIES TO @INC The parameters to C are added to the start of the perl search path. Saying use lib LIST; is the same as saying BEGIN { unshift(@INC, LIST) } =head2 DELETING DIRECTORIES FROM @INC You should normally only add directories to @INC. If you need to delete directories from @INC take care to only delete those which you added yourself or which you are certain are not needed by other modules in your script. Other modules may have added directories which they need for correct operation. By default the C statement deletes the I instance of each named directory from @INC. To delete multiple instances of the same name from @INC you can specify the name multiple times. To delete I instances of I the specified names from @INC you can specify ':ALL' as the first parameter of C. For example: no lib qw(:ALL .); =head2 RESTORING ORIGINAL @INC When the lib module is first loaded it records the current value of @INC in an array C<@lib::ORIG_INC>. To restore @INC to that value you can say either @INC = @lib::ORIG_INC; or no lib @INC; use lib @lib::ORIG_INC; =head1 SEE ALSO AddINC - optional module which deals with paths relative to the source file. =head1 AUTHOR Tim Bunce, 2nd June 1995. =cut