(Current version 0.10; last updated 18 July 1998)

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NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
DETAILS
TODO
Author

NAME

Devel::Trace - Print out each line before it is executed (like sh -x)

SYNOPSIS

  perl -d:Trace program

DESCRIPTION

If you run your program with perl -d:Trace program, this module will print a message to standard error just before each line is executed. For example, if your program looks like this:

        #!/usr/bin/perl
        
        
        print "Statement 1 at line 4\n";
        print "Statement 2 at line 5\n";
        print "Call to sub x returns ", &x(), " at line 6.\n";
        
        exit 0;
        
        
        sub x {
          print "In sub x at line 12.\n";
          return 13;
        }

Then the Trace output will look like this:

        >> ./test:4: print "Statement 1 at line 4\n";
        >> ./test:5: print "Statement 2 at line 5\n";
        >> ./test:6: print "Call to sub x returns ", &x(), " at line 6.\n";
        >> ./test:12:   print "In sub x at line 12.\n";
        >> ./test:13:   return 13;
        >> ./test:8: exit 0;

This is something like the shell's -x option.

DETAILS

Inside your program, you can enable and disable tracing by doing

    $Devel::Trace::TRACE = 1;   # Enable
    $Devel::Trace::TRACE = 0;   # Disable

    Devel::Trace::trace('on');  # Enable
    Devel::Trace::trace('off'); # Disable

Devel::Trace exports the trace function if you ask it to:

    import Devel::Trace 'trace';

Then if you want you just say

    trace 'on';                 # Enable
    trace 'off';                # Disable

TODO

You should be able to send the trace output to the filehandle of your choice.
You should be able to specify the format of the output.
You should be able to get the output into a string.

We'll see.

Author

Mark-Jason Dominus (mjd-perl-trace@plover.com), Plover Systems co.

See The Devel::Trace.pm Page for news and upgrades.