Ambiguous last usage in Net::NNTP

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

Another strange thing encountered. This time in Net::NNTP

 foreach my $h (@{$hosts}) {
    $connect{PeerAddr} = $h;
    $obj = $type->SUPER::new(%connect) or next;
    ${*$obj}{'net_nntp_host'} = $h;
    ${*$obj}{'net_nntp_arg'} = \%arg;
    if ($arg{SSL}) {
      Net::NNTP::_SSL->start_SSL($obj,%arg) or next;
    }
    last:
  }
[download]

You may see last: in the end of the block. Is this a label here (never used though)? Or kinda seldom usage of last command?

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Re: Ambiguous last usage in Net::NNTP by kcott (Archbishop) on Jul 11, 2015 at 21:30 UTC
G'day hurricup, That's part of the constructor (`new()`) code. From the Net::NNTP documentation, you can provide "... an array with hosts to try in turn.". Changing `last:` to `last;` will stop it trying after the first success (which is probably the intent). I'll take your word for it, that there's no label called '`last`' referenced elsewhere in the code. I was trying to think of way you could actually do that without generating an error (e.g. '`next last;`', '`last last;`', etc.); however, Perl seems to handle it OK: `$ perl -MO=Deparse -e 'next last;' next (last); -e syntax OK` [download] `$ perl -MO=Deparse -e 'last last;' last (last); -e syntax OK` [download] Looks like you're going to be spending a fair bit of time on `rt.cpan.org` today. :-) -- Ken	[reply] [d/l] [select]

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Re: Ambiguous last usage in Net::NNTP
by kcott (Archbishop) on Jul 11, 2015 at 21:30 UTC

G'day hurricup,

That's part of the constructor (new()) code. From the Net::NNTP documentation, you can provide "... an array with hosts to try in turn.".

Changing last: to last; will stop it trying after the first success (which is probably the intent).

I'll take your word for it, that there's no label called 'last' referenced elsewhere in the code. I was trying to think of way you could actually do that without generating an error (e.g. 'next last;', 'last last;', etc.); however, Perl seems to handle it OK:

$ perl -MO=Deparse -e 'next last;'
next (last);
-e syntax OK
[download]

$ perl -MO=Deparse -e 'last last;'
last (last);
-e syntax OK
[download]

Looks like you're going to be spending a fair bit of time on rt.cpan.org today. :-)

-- Ken

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