NAME

CORE - Pseudo-namespace for Perl's core routines

SYNOPSIS

BEGIN {
    *CORE::GLOBAL::hex = sub { 1; };
}

print hex("0x50"),"\n";			# prints 1
print CORE::hex("0x50"),"\n";		# prints 80

DESCRIPTION

The CORE namespace gives access to the original built-in functions of Perl. There is no CORE package, and therefore you do not need to use or require an hypothetical "CORE" module prior to accessing routines in this namespace.

A list of the built-in functions in Perl can be found in perlfunc.

OVERRIDING CORE FUNCTIONS

To override a Perl built-in routine with your own version, you need to import it at compile-time. This can be conveniently achieved with the subs pragma. This will affect only the package in which you've imported the said subroutine:

use subs 'chdir';
sub chdir { ... }
chdir $somewhere;

To override a built-in globally (that is, in all namespaces), you need to import your function into the CORE::GLOBAL pseudo-namespace at compile time:

BEGIN {
    *CORE::GLOBAL::hex = sub {
        # ... your code here
    };
}

The new routine will be called whenever a built-in function is called without a qualifying package:

print hex("0x50"),"\n";			# prints 1

In both cases, if you want access to the original, unaltered routine, use the CORE:: prefix:

print CORE::hex("0x50"),"\n";		# prints 80

AUTHOR

This documentation provided by Tels <nospam-abuse@bloodgate.com> 2007.

SEE ALSO

perlsub, perlfunc.