sub

sub NAME BLOCK

sub NAME (PROTO) BLOCK

sub NAME : ATTRS BLOCK

sub NAME (PROTO) : ATTRS BLOCK

This is subroutine definition, not a real function per se. Without a BLOCK it's just a forward declaration. Without a NAME, it's an anonymous function declaration, and does actually return a value: the CODE ref of the closure you just created.

See perlsub and perlref for details about subroutines and references, and attributes and Attribute::Handlers for more information about attributes.