| Filter::Util::Call - Perl Source Filter Utility Module |
Filter::Util::Call - Perl Source Filter Utility Module
use Filter::Util::Call ;
This module provides you with the framework to write Source Filters in Perl.
An alternate interface to Filter::Util::Call is now available. See the Filter::Simple manpage for more details.
A Perl Source Filter is implemented as a Perl module. The structure of the module can take one of two broadly similar formats. To distinguish between them, the first will be referred to as method filter and the second as closure filter.
Here is a skeleton for the method filter:
package MyFilter ;
use Filter::Util::Call ;
sub import
{
my($type, @arguments) = @_ ;
filter_add([]) ;
}
sub filter
{
my($self) = @_ ;
my($status) ;
$status = filter_read() ;
$status ;
}
1 ;
and this is the equivalent skeleton for the closure filter:
package MyFilter ;
use Filter::Util::Call ;
sub import
{
my($type, @arguments) = @_ ;
filter_add(
sub
{
my($status) ;
$status = filter_read() ;
$status ;
} )
}
1 ;
To make use of either of the two filter modules above, place the line below in a Perl source file.
use MyFilter;
In fact, the skeleton modules shown above are fully functional Source Filters, albeit fairly useless ones. All they does is filter the source stream without modifying it at all.
As you can see both modules have a broadly similar structure. They both
make use of the Filter::Util::Call module and both have an import
method. The difference between them is that the method filter
requires a filter method, whereas the closure filter gets the
equivalent of a filter method with the anonymous sub passed to
filter_add.
To make proper use of the closure filter shown above you need to have a good understanding of the concept of a closure. See the perlref manpage for more details on the mechanics of closures.
The following functions are exported by Filter::Util::Call:
filter_add()
filter_read()
filter_read_exact()
filter_del()
The import method is used to create an instance of the filter. It is
called indirectly by Perl when it encounters the use MyFilter line
in a source file (See import in the perlfunc manpage for more details on
import).
It will always have at least one parameter automatically passed by Perl
- this corresponds to the name of the package. In the example above it
will be "MyFilter".
Apart from the first parameter, import can accept an optional list of parameters. These can be used to pass parameters to the filter. For example:
use MyFilter qw(a b c) ;
will result in the @_ array having the following values:
@_ [0] => "MyFilter"
@_ [1] => "a"
@_ [2] => "b"
@_ [3] => "c"
Before terminating, the import function must explicitly install the
filter by calling filter_add.
filter_add()
The function, filter_add, actually installs the filter. It takes one
parameter which should be a reference. The kind of reference used will
dictate which of the two filter types will be used.
If a CODE reference is used then a closure filter will be assumed.
If a CODE reference is not used, a method filter will be assumed.
In a method filter, the reference can be used to store context
information. The reference will be blessed into the package by
filter_add.
See the filters at the end of this documents for examples of using context information using both method filters and closure filters.
Both the filter method used with a method filter and the
anonymous sub used with a closure filter is where the main
processing for the filter is done.
The big difference between the two types of filter is that the method filter uses the object passed to the method to store any context data, whereas the closure filter uses the lexical variables that are maintained by the closure.
Note that the single parameter passed to the method filter,
$self, is the same reference that was passed to filter_add
blessed into the filter's package. See the example filters later on for
details of using $self.
Here is a list of the common features of the anonymous sub and the
filter() method.
$_ doesn't actually appear explicitly in the sample filters
above, it is implicitly used in a number of places.
Firstly, when either filter or the anonymous sub are called, a local
copy of $_ will automatically be created. It will always contain the
empty string at this point.
Next, both filter_read and filter_read_exact will append any
source data that is read to the end of $_.
Finally, when filter or the anonymous sub are finished processing,
they are expected to return the filtered source using $_.
This implicit use of $_ greatly simplifies the filter.
filter method or
anonymous sub and the filter_read and read_exact functions take
the same set of values, namely:
< 0 Error
= 0 EOF
> 0 OK
The function filter_read takes two forms:
$status = filter_read() ;
$status = filter_read($size) ;
The first form is used to request a line, the second requests a block.
In line mode, filter_read will append the next source line to the
end of the $_ scalar.
In block mode, filter_read will append a block of data which is <=
$size to the end of the $_ scalar. It is important to emphasise
the that filter_read will not necessarily read a block which is
precisely $size bytes.
If you need to be able to read a block which has an exact size, you can
use the function filter_read_exact. It works identically to
filter_read in block mode, except it will try to read a block which
is exactly $size bytes in length. The only circumstances when it
will not return a block which is $size bytes long is on EOF or
error.
It is very important to check the value of $status after every
call to filter_read or filter_read_exact.
filter_del, is used to disable the current filter. It
does not affect the running of the filter. All it does is tell Perl not
to call filter any more.
See Example 4: Using filter_del for details.
Here are a few examples which illustrate the key concepts - as such most of them are of little practical use.
The examples sub-directory has copies of all these filters
implemented both as method filters and as closure filters.
Below is a method filter which is hard-wired to replace all
occurrences of the string "Joe" to "Jim". Not particularly
Useful, but it is the first example and I wanted to keep it simple.
package Joe2Jim ;
use Filter::Util::Call ;
sub import
{
my($type) = @_ ;
filter_add(bless []) ;
}
sub filter
{
my($self) = @_ ;
my($status) ;
s/Joe/Jim/g
if ($status = filter_read()) > 0 ;
$status ;
}
1 ;
Here is an example of using the filter:
use Joe2Jim ;
print "Where is Joe?\n" ;
And this is what the script above will print:
Where is Jim?
The previous example was not particularly useful. To make it more
general purpose we will make use of the context data and allow any
arbitrary from and to strings to be used. This time we will use a
closure filter. To reflect its enhanced role, the filter is called
Subst.
package Subst ;
use Filter::Util::Call ;
use Carp ;
sub import
{
croak("usage: use Subst qw(from to)")
unless @_ == 3 ;
my ($self, $from, $to) = @_ ;
filter_add(
sub
{
my ($status) ;
s/$from/$to/
if ($status = filter_read()) > 0 ;
$status ;
})
}
1 ;
and is used like this:
use Subst qw(Joe Jim) ;
print "Where is Joe?\n" ;
Here is a filter which a variation of the Joe2Jim filter. As well as
substituting all occurrences of "Joe" to "Jim" it keeps a count
of the number of substitutions made in the context object.
Once EOF is detected ($status is zero) the filter will insert an
extra line into the source stream. When this extra line is executed it
will print a count of the number of substitutions actually made.
Note that $status is set to 1 in this case.
package Count ;
use Filter::Util::Call ;
sub filter
{
my ($self) = @_ ;
my ($status) ;
if (($status = filter_read()) > 0 ) {
s/Joe/Jim/g ;
++ $$self ;
}
elsif ($$self >= 0) { # EOF
$_ = "print q[Made ${$self} substitutions\n]" ;
$status = 1 ;
$$self = -1 ;
}
$status ;
}
sub import
{
my ($self) = @_ ;
my ($count) = 0 ;
filter_add(\$count) ;
}
1 ;
Here is a script which uses it:
use Count ;
print "Hello Joe\n" ;
print "Where is Joe\n" ;
Outputs:
Hello Jim
Where is Jim
Made 2 substitutions
Another variation on a theme. This time we will modify the Subst
filter to allow a starting and stopping pattern to be specified as well
as the from and to patterns. If you know the vi editor, it is
the equivalent of this command:
:/start/,/stop/s/from/to/
When used as a filter we want to invoke it like this:
use NewSubst qw(start stop from to) ;
Here is the module.
package NewSubst ;
use Filter::Util::Call ;
use Carp ;
sub import
{
my ($self, $start, $stop, $from, $to) = @_ ;
my ($found) = 0 ;
croak("usage: use Subst qw(start stop from to)")
unless @_ == 5 ;
filter_add(
sub
{
my ($status) ;
if (($status = filter_read()) > 0) {
$found = 1
if $found == 0 and /$start/ ;
if ($found) {
s/$from/$to/ ;
filter_del() if /$stop/ ;
}
}
$status ;
} )
}
1 ;
If you intend using the Filter::Call functionality, I would strongly recommend that you check out Damian Conway's excellent Filter::Simple module. This module provides a much cleaner interface than Filter::Util::Call. Although it doesn't allow the fine control that Filter::Util::Call does, it should be adequate for the majority of applications. It's available at
http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-author/Damian_Conway/Filter-Simple.tar.gz http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~damian/CPAN/Filter-Simple.tar.gz
Paul Marquess
26th January 1996
| Filter::Util::Call - Perl Source Filter Utility Module |