Possible to get coderef of CORE::print to alias it?

Yary has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a function that I might want to just be an alias to "print", or I might want it to be something else. This is what I tried:

my $pick_real_print = 1;
use vars qw(&printish);
*printish = $pick_real_print ? *CORE::print :
  sub { print "I'm not really print!\n" };

CORE::print "Here is the real deal\n";
printish "printing\n";
[download]

which prints:

Here is the real deal
Undefined subroutine &CORE::print called at - line 7.

I know print is a very special function... is it possible to alias to it?

ps. I already have the workaround sub { print } in place. I was hoping to benchmark the difference between that and aliasing via code reference, since this will be in a tight loop, and I'm curious.

Comment on Possible to get coderef of CORE::print to alias it? Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Possible to get coderef of CORE::print to alias it? by LanX (Saint) on Feb 19, 2013 at 00:33 UTC
> is it possible to alias to it? Nope! `DB<128> $CORE::{substr} => CORE::substr DB<129> $CORE::{print} => undef` [download] It's not really as a "function" in CORE namespace, to rule out overriding. prototype FUNCTION Returns the prototype of a function as a string (or "un +def" if the function has no prototype). FUNCTION is a referenc +e to, or the name of, the function whose prototype you want to r +etrieve. If FUNCTION is a string starting with "CORE::", the res +t is taken as a name for Perl builtin. If the builtin is no +t overridable (such as "qw//") or if its arguments cannot + be adequately expressed by a prototype (such as "system"), prototype() returns "undef", because the builtin does n +ot really behave like a Perl function. Otherwise, the str +ing describing the equivalent prototype is returned. [download] `DB<131> prototype 'CORE::print' => undef DB<132> prototype 'CORE::substr' => "\$\$;\$\$"` [download] Nevertheless can it be called. `DB<133> CORE::print("bla") bla` [download] > I know print is a very special function...* Thats the point, print is magic about indirect object syntax: eg `print STDERR "Fatal!"` This behavior can't be mimiced with normal prototypes, so no STASH entry. Cheers Rolf	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Possible to get coderef of CORE::print to alias it? by Yary (Pilgrim) on Feb 19, 2013 at 00:47 UTC
Thanks, knew I'd seen that somewhere, forgot about "prototype".	[reply]