Yes, use can from UNIVERSAL to check for those methods you need.

Practical experimentation shows this doesn't work. :-(

use 5.010;
use Test::More;
use IO::Handle;

open my $fh, ">", "/tmp/foo" or die "argh";

ok $fh->can("close");
ok UNIVERSAL::can($fh, "close");

done_testing();

__END__
not ok 1
#   Failed test at fh.pl line 7.
not ok 2
#   Failed test at fh.pl line 8.
1..2
# Looks like you failed 2 tests of 2.
[download]

perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'

Not really surprising, since, according to perldoc,

UNIVERSAL is the base class from which all blessed references inherit

that is, the can method applies only to objects.

Would something like this do?

#! perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my $in_file  = 'temp1.txt';   # this must exist
my $outfile  = 'temp2.txt';
my $arrayref = [];

open(my $in,  '<', $in_file) or die "Cannot open file '$in_file' for r
+eading: $!";
open(my $out, '>', $outfile) or die "Cannot open file '$outfile' for w
+riting: $!";

can_write( $in_file,   $in);
can_write( $outfile,   $out);
can_write('$arrayref', $arrayref);

close($in)                   or die "Cannot close file '$in_file': $!"
+;
close($out)                  or die "Cannot close file '$outfile': $!"
+;

sub can_write
{
    my ($name, $fh) = @_;
    my  $result     = eval { no warnings; print $fh '' };

    printf "$name %s write\n", ($result ? 'can' : 'cannot');
}

__END__
temp1.txt cannot write
temp2.txt can write
$arrayref cannot write
[download]

Update: The CPAN module FileHandle::Fmode by Sisyphus/syphilis may also be worth investigating, although it too appears not to work with IO::All objects.

HTH,

Athanasius <°(((>< contra mundum

IO::Detect 0.001

Hm. Another whole module substitute for a single, built-in function?

A whole module that does what I want as a substitute for a single, built-in function that does not, and actually dies in some cases I'd want it to return true.

use 5.010;
use Test::More tests => 6;
use IO::Detect;
use IO::All;
use IO::Scalar;

my $filename = '/dev/null';

open my $fh, '>', $filename;
my $all = IO::All->new($filename);
my $scalar = IO::Scalar->new(\(my $dummy));

diag "Testing IO::Detect";
ok is_filehandle($fh);
ok is_filehandle($all);
ok is_filehandle($scalar);

diag "Testing fileno";
ok defined fileno($fh);
ok defined fileno($all);
ok defined fileno($scalar);
[download]

perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'

A whole module that does what I want ... in some cases I'd want it to return true.

That is only the case if you define "what you want" as: "What my newly minted module does."

But, what does a.n.other user actually need? And does your is_filehandle() actually supply it?

That is, someone is writing a module that accepts a "file handle" as a input argument, and they want to know if what they've been given, is acceptable for their purpose. That means they can either read from it; write to it; or both. And your module fails to detect that information.

#! perl -slw
use strict;
use IO::Detect qw[ is_filehandle ];

sub funcTakesIO1 {
    my $fh = shift;

    if( is_filehandle( $fh ) ) {
        print $fh 'Bang!';
    }
    return;
}

sub funcTakesIO2 {
    my $fh = shift;

    if( is_filehandle( $fh ) ) {
        return <$fh>;
    }
    return;
}


eval {
    funcTakesIO1( \*STDIN );
} or warn "IO::Detect detected the wrong thing";

eval {
    funcTakesIO2( \*STDOUT );
} or warn "IO::Detect detected the wrong thing";

__END__
C:\test>junk5
Filehandle STDIN opened only for input at C:\test\junk5.pl line 9.
IO::Detect detected the wrong thing at C:\test\junk5.pl line 24.
Filehandle STDOUT opened only for output at C:\test\junk5.pl line 18.
IO::Detect detected the wrong thing at C:\test\junk5.pl line 28.
[download]

What the user actually requires in that situation is something like siphylis' Filehandle::Fmode, which has been around for a few years and effectively renders your module redundant.

---

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

The start of some sanity?

Right, because fileno is flawless and works with everything that passes for a filehandle