lib(32)

lib(3)          Perl Programmers Reference Guide           lib(3)

NAME

     lib - manipulate @INC at compile time

SYNOPSIS

         use lib LIST;

         no lib LIST;

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 use or require statements will
     find modules which are not located on perl's default search
     path.

     ADDING DIRECTORIES TO @INC

     The parameters to use lib are added to the start of the perl
     search path. Saying

         use lib LIST;

     is almost the same as saying

         BEGIN { unshift(@INC, LIST) }

     For each directory in LIST (called $dir here) the lib module
     also checks to see if a directory called $dir/$archname/auto
     exists.  If so the $dir/$archname directory is assumed to be
     a corresponding architecture specific directory and is added
     to @INC in front of $dir.

     If LIST includes both $dir and $dir/$archname then
     $dir/$archname will be added to @INC twice (if
     $dir/$archname/auto exists).

     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 no lib statement deletes the first instance
     of each named directory from @INC.  To delete multiple
     instances of the same name from @INC you can specify the
     name multiple times.

23/Jan/97       Last change: perl 5.004, patch 04               1

lib(3)          Perl Programmers Reference Guide           lib(3)

     To delete all instances of all the specified names from @INC
     you can specify ':ALL' as the first parameter of no lib. For
     example:

         no lib qw(:ALL .);

     For each directory in LIST (called $dir here) the lib module
     also checks to see if a directory called $dir/$archname/auto
     exists.  If so the $dir/$archname directory is assumed to be
     a corresponding architecture specific directory and is also
     deleted from @INC.

     If LIST includes both $dir and $dir/$archname then
     $dir/$archname will be deleted from @INC twice (if
     $dir/$archname/auto exists).

     RESTORING ORIGINAL @INC

     When the lib module is first loaded it records the current
     value of @INC in an array @lib::ORIG_INC. To restore @INC to
     that value you can say

         @INC = @lib::ORIG_INC;

SEE ALSO

     FindBin - optional module which deals with paths relative to
     the source file.

AUTHOR

     Tim Bunce, 2nd June 1995.

23/Jan/97       Last change: perl 5.004, patch 04               2