I think it's even clearer seen with the two points before, emphasize added

  1. use YourModule;

    This imports all the symbols from YourModule's @EXPORT into the namespace of the use statement.

  2. use YourModule ();

    This causes perl to load your module but does not import any symbols.

  3. use YourModule qw(...);

    This imports only the symbols listed by the caller into their namespace. All listed symbols must be in your @EXPORT or @EXPORT_OK, else an error occurs.

it would be inconsistent with case two with an empty list, if auto-imports were allowed in the third case.

edit

but I agree with the ibm1620 that always_imported is misleading. something like default_imported would be better.

Probably worth a doc patch.

Cheers Rolf
(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery

In reply to Re^2: Perl modules, Exporter, and @EXPORT vs. @EXPORT_OK by LanX
in thread Perl modules, Exporter, and @EXPORT vs. @EXPORT_OK by ibm1620

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.