perl -MDevel::Symdump -le'eval"require $ARGV[0]";print for Devel::Symd
+ump->new($ARGV[0])->functions' HTML::Parser
[download]

use strict;
use warnings;

use Devel::Symdump;

my $class = shift || die "need module name";

eval "require $class";

my $obj = Devel::Symdump->new($class);
print $_,$/ for $obj->functions;
[download]

print $_,$/ for grep ! /::_/,  $obj->functions;
[download]

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

Try saving this to a file in your perl/lib/Devel/ directory as SubCheck.pm

use strict;
package DB;

CHECK{ print "$_ => $DB::sub{$_}" for sort keys %DB::sub; die 'Done'; 
+}
sub DB{ return; }

1;
[download]

Then invoke a program that uses the modules you are interested in exploring using the following syntax:

perl -d:SubCheck yourscript.
[download]

You will get output that looks something like this (for a very simple program).

The output is of the form packagename::subname => sourcefile:startline-endline.

The list should include all the subs the compiler knows about just prior to running the program. The program will not be run.

I guess this could be a candidate for uploading to CPAN if anyone would find it useful. Hardly seems worth it for 6 lines of code though?

The list should include all the subs the compiler knows about just prior to running the program. The program will not be run.**

That's a very important distinction, as nothing dynamic (ie. run-time evaluated) will be listed.

For example, CGI is probably the most well known example of dynamic autoloading. If you were to use CGI in your program and then run this, you’d see only a very small selection of the function available. However with use CGI qw(-compile :all) it would list them all. That's because, by default, CGI only compiles a function when it’s requested.

Update: A simpler example is require Module::Name if $foo

Any method to list functions will always be suspect due to dynamic evaluation. Add in anonymous subs and the waters are even murkier. This isn't a failing in BrowserUK’s method (which is pretty damn cool), it’s a reality of Perl.

---

** Not completely correct as the BEGIN{} block will be run. (Yes I’m picking nits :)

And then there is even murkier code.

If you want to play with the symbol table then Devel::Symdump provides lots of potential amusement.

I suppose if you really wanted to you could grep the module source for:

    /^ \s* sub \s+ (\w+) \s* [({] /x

But that would miss a lot.

    -- Chip Salzenberg, Free-Floating Agent of Chaos

I would be interested to find out which modules you want to try it on, and whether it is helpful from your perspective.

Something better then perldoc or looking at module docs.

/J\