What caught my attention was the "top of the file" - this is why I was referring to doing a file. A little example will serve more than a thousands words, anyway.

First script /tmp/prova1.pl uses wantarray at the top level of a file:

#!/usr/bin/perl
wantarray
        ? print("wantarray!\n")
        : defined wantarray
                ? print("wantarray defined but false\n")
                : print("wantarray undefined!\n");
wantarray
        ? qw( ciao a tutti )
        : defined wantarray && "howdy!";
[download]

When called directly, it yelds:

wantarray undefined!
[download]

but here I agree with you, we cannot rely on it. This is why I built the second script /tmp/prova2.pl:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
$" = ", ";

print "First: list context\n";
my @a = do '/tmp/prova1.pl';
print "array \@a = (@a)\n\n";

print "Second: void context\n";
do '/tmp/prova1.pl';

print "\nThird: scalar context\n";
my $c = do '/tmp/prova1.pl';
print "scalar \$c = $c\n";
[download]

which yelds:

First: list context
wantarray!
array @a = (ciao, a, tutti)

Second: void context
wantarray undefined!


Third: scalar context
wantarray defined but false
scalar $c = howdy!
[download]

So, the wantarray is used "at the top of the file", but it seems that wantarray is working fine. Can we rely on it? If yes, I think that the docs should be made a little clearer.

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