IO::File(3)							   IO::File(3)

NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     IO::File -	supply object methods for filehandles

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

	 use IO::File;

	 $fh = new IO::File;
	 if ($fh->open("< file")) {
	     print <$fh>;
	     $fh->close;
	 }

	 $fh = new IO::File "> file";
	 if (defined $fh) {
	     print $fh "bar\n";
	     $fh->close;
	 }

	 $fh = new IO::File "file", "r";
	 if (defined $fh) {
	     print <$fh>;
	     undef $fh;	      #	automatically closes the file
	 }

	 $fh = new IO::File "file", O_WRONLY|O_APPEND;
	 if (defined $fh) {
	     print $fh "corge\n";

	     $pos = $fh->getpos;
	     $fh->setpos($pos);

	     undef $fh;	      #	automatically closes the file
	 }

	 autoflush STDOUT 1;

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     IO::File inherits from IO::Handle and IO::Seekable. It extends these
     classes with methods that are specific to file handles.

CONSTRUCTOR    [Toc]    [Back]

     new ([ ARGS ] )
	 Creates a IO::File.  If it receives any parameters, they are passed
	 to the	method open; if	the open fails,	the object is destroyed.
	 Otherwise, it is returned to the caller.

     new_tmpfile
	 Creates an IO::File opened for	read/write on a	newly created
	 temporary file.  On systems where this	is possible, the temporary
	 file is anonymous (i.e. it is unlinked	after creation,	but held
	 open).	 If the	temporary file cannot be created or opened, the



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IO::File(3)							   IO::File(3)



	 IO::File object is destroyed.	Otherwise, it is returned to the
	 caller.

METHODS    [Toc]    [Back]

     open( FILENAME [,MODE [,PERMS]] )
	 open accepts one, two or three	parameters.  With one parameter, it is
	 just a	front end for the built-in open	function.  With	two
	 parameters, the first parameter is a filename that may	include
	 whitespace or other special characters, and the second	parameter is
	 the open mode,	optionally followed by a file permission value.

	 If IO::File::open receives a Perl mode	string (">", "+<", etc.)  or a
	 POSIX fopen() mode string ("w", "r+", etc.), it uses the basic	Perl
	 open operator.

	 If IO::File::open is given a numeric mode, it passes that mode	and
	 the optional permissions value	to the Perl sysopen operator.  For
	 convenience, IO::File::import tries to	import the O_XXX constants
	 from the Fcntl	module.	 If dynamic loading is not available, this may
	 fail, but the rest of IO::File	will still work.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     the perlfunc manpage, the section on I/O Operators	in the perlop manpage,
     the IO::Handle manpage the	IO::Seekable manpage

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     Derived from FileHandle.pm	by Graham Barr <bodg@tiuk.ti.com>.


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