Autoloading From a File

• If there's a lot of autoloaded code, it makes more sense to keep it in a file

        sub AUTOLOAD {
           my $file = $AUTOLOAD;
           $file =~ s{::}{/}g;
           $file = "/src/app/autoloaded/$file.al";

           open my $fh, "< $file" 
             or croak "Couldn't load code from $file: $!; aborting";

           my $code;
           { local $/; $code = <$fh> }
           *$AUTOLOAD = eval $code;
           goto &$AUTOLOAD;
        }

• The first time the function is called, the code is loaded from the file

• Code for Some::Module::foo is in .../Some/Module/foo.al

• Code compiled and installed in symbol table as before

• Second time, the function is called directly - no overhead

• Now you know what AutoLoader does - invented for POSIX

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Copyright © 2003 M. J. Dominus