http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=511061


in reply to Tweaking 'return'.

If you want to track entry and exit to all subroutines, the easiest way is to write a custom debugger. It's actually very easy:
# This is the custom debugger: { package DB; sub DB {} sub sub { print STDERR "== Entering sub $sub\n"; &$sub; # Call the sub print STDERR "=== Leaving sub $sub\n"; } } # Now some example code to test it with: sub hello { print "Hello, "; world(); } sub world { print "World!\n"; } $|++; # Turn off buffering, to make the control flow clearer hello();
The debugging code will only be activated if you run with perl -d, so:
$ perl d.pl Hello, World! $ perl -d d.pl Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.28 Editor support available. Enter h or `h h' for help, or `man perldebug' for more help. == Entering sub main::hello Hello, == Entering sub main::world World! === Leaving sub main::world === Leaving sub main::hello
See perldebguts for all the gory details.

Update: As a (probably better) alternative to running perl -d, you can use

BEGIN {$^P = 1}
to enable subroutine-tracing. That way you don't need the empty sub DB either. But woe betide you if you should actually run with perl -d. Maybe it's best to use something like
BEGIN { return if $^P; # If the debugger is running, leave well alone $^P = 1; # Enable subroutine tracing package DB; *sub = sub { print STDERR "== Entering sub $sub\n"; &$sub; print STDERR "=== Leaving sub $sub\n"; }; }