if you're using a log object, the DESTROY method you're describing should work.

In other words, show us some of the code.

Put a DESTROY method in your Log class that writes out the line that you want when the log object is destroyed. Leave the IO::File class alone.

use IO::File;

package Log;

sub new {
    my ($class, $file) = @_;
    my $self = bless {}, $class;
    $self{fh} = IO::File->new( $file, ">>" ) or die $!;
    return $self;
}

sub log {
    my $self = shift;
    $self{fh}->print( map { scalar localtime() . " $_\n" } @_ );
}

sub DESTROY {
    my $self = shift;
    $self{fh}->print scalar localtime(), "Finished\n";
    $self{fh}->close;
}
[download]

I have tried the writing to the file handle before in the DESTROY. However the IO::File object seems to go out of scope or has its DESTROY called before I am able to write to it in my Log objects DESTROY. Here is my code below. I create an object of this class in a script and let it fall off the end of the script to test if the Finished line is written during the DESTROY however it never gets written unless I explicitly call DESTROY

package MyLog
$VERSION = '0.0.1';
use strict;
use Carp qw(croak longmess);
use English;
use File::Path;
use File::Basename;
use IO::File;
use MyModules::Date::Holiday qw(today);

our $home;
our $username;
BEGIN { $username = (getpwuid($<))[0]; $home = $ENV{HOME} ? $ENV{HOME}
+ : "/home/users/$username"; }

{
my $log;
my $fh;

# {{{ new 
sub new {
    # singleton pattern for the logger
    if($log) {
        return $log;
    } else {
        my $class = shift;
        my $self =  {};
        $log = bless($self, $class);
        $self->_init(@_);
        return $self->new();
    }
}
# }}}

# {{{ _init intialize all the inputs given to the constructor
sub _init {
    my $self = shift;
    if(@_) {
        my %args = %{shift @_};
        @$self{keys %args} = values %args;
    }

    if(!$self->{logfile}) {
        my $basedir = $home . '/log/' . today() . '/';
        # if for some reason we do not have the dated log directory cr
+eated, create one
        unless(-d $basedir) {
            eval {
                mkpath($basedir);
            };    
            if($@) {
                croak("$0 cannot create log directory $basedir : $@");
            }
        }
        my ($f,$d,$s) = fileparse($0);
        $self->{'logfile'} = $basedir . $f . '.log';
    }

    if(!$self->{fh}) {
        my $logfile = $self->{logfile};
        if(-e $logfile) {
            # if the logfile is there then append to it
            $fh = new IO::File;
            if($fh->open(">> $logfile")) {
                $self->{'fh'} = $fh;
            } else {
                croak("$0 Could not open logfile $logfile for appendin
+g $OS_ERROR\n");
            }     
        } else {
            # create a new logfile if one does not exist
            $fh = new IO::File;
            if($fh->open("> $logfile")) {
                $self->{'fh'} = $fh;
            } else {
                croak("$0 Could not create logfile $logfile $OS_ERROR\
+n");
            }     
        }
    }
    print {$self->{'fh'}} $self->get_time() . " INFO | Started \n";
}
# }}}

# {{{ log($level,$msg)
sub log {
    my $self = shift;
    my $level = shift;
    my $msg = shift;
    my $fh = $self->{fh};
    my $logentry = $self->get_time() . $level . ' | ' . "$msg";    
    # if it is an error, email it
    if($level =~ /(ERROR|WARN)/i) {
        if($self->{'to'}) {
            croak($logentry,$self->{'to'});
        } else {
            croak($logentry);
        }
    }
    print {$fh} "$logentry\n";    
}
# }}}

# {{{ info($msg)
sub info {
    my $self = shift;
    my $msg = shift;
    $self->log("INFO",$msg);
}
# }}}

# {{{ warn($msg)
sub warn {
    my $self = shift;
    my $msg = shift;
    $self->log("WARN",$msg);
}
# }}}

# {{{ fatal($msg)
sub fatal {
    my $self = shift;
    my $msg = shift;
    $self->log("ERROR",longmess() . " $msg");
    $self->DESTROY();
    die($msg);
}
# }}}

# {{{ get_time  borrowed from Pavels LogFile.pm
sub get_time {
   my ($sec, $min, $hour, $day, $mon, $year) = localtime();
   my $date = sprintf "%4d.%02d.%02d %02d:%02d.%02d | ",
                $year + 1900,
                $mon + 1,
                $day,
                $hour,
                $min,
                $sec;
   return $date;
}
# }}}

# {{{ log_file
sub log_file {
    return shift->{'logfile'};
}
# }}}

# {{{ DESTROY
sub DESTROY {
   my $self = shift;
   if($fh && fileno $fh) {
    print "Finish\n";
    print {$fh} $self->get_time() . 'INFO | ' . "$0 Finished\n";
    $fh->flush;
    $fh->close;
   }
   undef $fh;
}
# }}}
1; # Magic true value required at end of module
__END__
[download]

Does it work if you don't make it a singleton object?

-xdg

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