.\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 2.27 (Pod::Simple 3.28)
.\"
.\" Standard preamble:
.\" ========================================================================
.de Sp \" Vertical space (when we can't use .PP)
.if t .sp .5v
.if n .sp
..
.de Vb \" Begin verbatim text
.ft CW
.nf
.ne \\$1
..
.de Ve \" End verbatim text
.ft R
.fi
..
.\" Set up some character translations and predefined strings.  \*(-- will
.\" give an unbreakable dash, \*(PI will give pi, \*(L" will give a left
.\" double quote, and \*(R" will give a right double quote.  \*(C+ will
.\" give a nicer C++.  Capital omega is used to do unbreakable dashes and
.\" therefore won't be available.  \*(C` and \*(C' expand to `' in nroff,
.\" nothing in troff, for use with C<>.
.tr \(*W-
.ds C+ C\v'-.1v'\h'-1p'\s-2+\h'-1p'+\s0\v'.1v'\h'-1p'
.ie n \{\
.    ds -- \(*W-
.    ds PI pi
.    if (\n(.H=4u)&(1m=24u) .ds -- \(*W\h'-12u'\(*W\h'-12u'-\" diablo 10 pitch
.    if (\n(.H=4u)&(1m=20u) .ds -- \(*W\h'-12u'\(*W\h'-8u'-\"  diablo 12 pitch
.    ds L" ""
.    ds R" ""
.    ds C` ""
.    ds C' ""
'br\}
.el\{\
.    ds -- \|\(em\|
.    ds PI \(*p
.    ds L" ``
.    ds R" ''
.    ds C`
.    ds C'
'br\}
.\"
.\" Escape single quotes in literal strings from groff's Unicode transform.
.ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
.el       .ds Aq '
.\"
.\" If the F register is turned on, we'll generate index entries on stderr for
.\" titles (.TH), headers (.SH), subsections (.SS), items (.Ip), and index
.\" entries marked with X<> in POD.  Of course, you'll have to process the
.\" output yourself in some meaningful fashion.
.\"
.\" Avoid warning from groff about undefined register 'F'.
.de IX
..
.nr rF 0
.if \n(.g .if rF .nr rF 1
.if (\n(rF:(\n(.g==0)) \{
.    if \nF \{
.        de IX
.        tm Index:\\$1\t\\n%\t"\\$2"
..
.        if !\nF==2 \{
.            nr % 0
.            nr F 2
.        \}
.    \}
.\}
.rr rF
.\"
.\" Accent mark definitions (@(#)ms.acc 1.5 88/02/08 SMI; from UCB 4.2).
.\" Fear.  Run.  Save yourself.  No user-serviceable parts.
.    \" fudge factors for nroff and troff
.if n \{\
.    ds #H 0
.    ds #V .8m
.    ds #F .3m
.    ds #[ \f1
.    ds #] \fP
.\}
.if t \{\
.    ds #H ((1u-(\\\\n(.fu%2u))*.13m)
.    ds #V .6m
.    ds #F 0
.    ds #[ \&
.    ds #] \&
.\}
.    \" simple accents for nroff and troff
.if n \{\
.    ds ' \&
.    ds ` \&
.    ds ^ \&
.    ds , \&
.    ds ~ ~
.    ds /
.\}
.if t \{\
.    ds ' \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\'\h"|\\n:u"
.    ds ` \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\`\h'|\\n:u'
.    ds ^ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*10/11-\*(#H)'^\h'|\\n:u'
.    ds , \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10)',\h'|\\n:u'
.    ds ~ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu-\*(#H-.1m)'~\h'|\\n:u'
.    ds / \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H)'\z\(sl\h'|\\n:u'
.\}
.    \" troff and (daisy-wheel) nroff accents
.ds : \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*8/10-\*(#H+.1m+\*(#F)'\v'-\*(#V'\z.\h'.2m+\*(#F'.\h'|\\n:u'\v'\*(#V'
.ds 8 \h'\*(#H'\(*b\h'-\*(#H'
.ds o \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu+\w'\(de'u-\*(#H)/2u'\v'-.3n'\*(#[\z\(de\v'.3n'\h'|\\n:u'\*(#]
.ds d- \h'\*(#H'\(pd\h'-\w'~'u'\v'-.25m'\f2\(hy\fP\v'.25m'\h'-\*(#H'
.ds D- D\\k:\h'-\w'D'u'\v'-.11m'\z\(hy\v'.11m'\h'|\\n:u'
.ds th \*(#[\v'.3m'\s+1I\s-1\v'-.3m'\h'-(\w'I'u*2/3)'\s-1o\s+1\*(#]
.ds Th \*(#[\s+2I\s-2\h'-\w'I'u*3/5'\v'-.3m'o\v'.3m'\*(#]
.ds ae a\h'-(\w'a'u*4/10)'e
.ds Ae A\h'-(\w'A'u*4/10)'E
.    \" corrections for vroff
.if v .ds ~ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*9/10-\*(#H)'\s-2\u~\d\s+2\h'|\\n:u'
.if v .ds ^ \\k:\h'-(\\n(.wu*10/11-\*(#H)'\v'-.4m'^\v'.4m'\h'|\\n:u'
.    \" for low resolution devices (crt and lpr)
.if \n(.H>23 .if \n(.V>19 \
\{\
.    ds : e
.    ds 8 ss
.    ds o a
.    ds d- d\h'-1'\(ga
.    ds D- D\h'-1'\(hy
.    ds th \o'bp'
.    ds Th \o'LP'
.    ds ae ae
.    ds Ae AE
.\}
.rm #[ #] #H #V #F C
.\" ========================================================================
.\"
.IX Title "File::Slurp 3"
.TH File::Slurp 3 "2011-05-31" "perl v5.16.3" "User Contributed Perl Documentation"
.\" For nroff, turn off justification.  Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
.\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
.if n .ad l
.nh
.SH "NAME"
File::Slurp \- Simple and Efficient Reading/Writing/Modifying of Complete Files
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
.Vb 1
\&  use File::Slurp;
.Ve
.PP
# read in a whole file into a scalar
  my \f(CW$text\fR = read_file( 'filename' ) ;
.PP
# read in a whole file into an array of lines
  my \f(CW@lines\fR = read_file( 'filename' ) ;
.PP
# write out a whole file from a scalar
  write_file( 'filename', \f(CW$text\fR ) ;
.PP
# write out a whole file from an array of lines
  write_file( 'filename', \f(CW@lines\fR ) ;
.PP
# Here is a simple and fast way to load and save a simple config file
# made of key=value lines.
  my \f(CW%conf\fR = read_file( \f(CW$file_name\fR ) =~ /^(\ew+)=(.*)$/mg ;
  write_file( \f(CW$file_name\fR, {atomic => 1}, map \*(L"$_=$conf{$_}\en\*(R", keys \f(CW%conf\fR ) ;
.PP
# insert text at the beginning of a file
  prepend_file( 'filename', \f(CW$text\fR ) ;
.PP
# in-place edit to replace all 'foo' with 'bar' in file 
  edit_file { s/foo/bar/g } 'filename' ;
.PP
# in-place edit to delete all lines with 'foo' from file
  edit_file_lines sub { \f(CW$_\fR = '' if /foo/ }, 'filename' ;
.PP
# read in a whole directory of file names (skipping . and ..)
  my \f(CW@files\fR = read_dir( '/path/to/dir' ) ;
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
This module provides subs that allow you to read or write entire files
with one simple call. They are designed to be simple to use, have
flexible ways to pass in or get the file contents and to be very
efficient.  There is also a sub to read in all the files in a
directory other than \f(CW\*(C`.\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`..\*(C'\fR
.PP
These slurp/spew subs work for files, pipes and sockets, stdio,
pseudo-files, and the \s-1DATA\s0 handle. Read more about why slurping files is
a good thing in the file 'slurp_article.pod' in the extras/ directory.
.PP
If you are interested in how fast these calls work, check out the
slurp_bench.pl program in the extras/ directory. It compares many
different forms of slurping. You can select the I/O direction, context
and file sizes. Use the \-\-help option to see how to run it.
.SS "\fBread_file\fP"
.IX Subsection "read_file"
This sub reads in an entire file and returns its contents to the
caller.  In scalar context it returns the entire file as a single
scalar. In list context it will return a list of lines (using the
current value of $/ as the separator including support for paragraph
mode when it is set to '').
.PP
.Vb 4
\&  my $text = read_file( \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq ) ;
\&  my $bin = read_file( \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq { binmode => \*(Aq:raw\*(Aq } ) ;
\&  my @lines = read_file( \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq ) ;
\&  my $lines = read_file( \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq, array_ref => 1 ) ;
.Ve
.PP
The first argument is the file to slurp in. If the next argument is a
hash reference, then it is used as the options. Otherwise the rest of
the argument list are is used as key/value options.
.PP
If the file argument is a handle (if it is a ref and is an \s-1IO\s0 or \s-1GLOB\s0
object), then that handle is slurped in. This mode is supported so you
slurp handles such as \f(CW\*(C`DATA\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`STDIN\*(C'\fR. See the test handle.t for
an example that does \f(CW\*(C`open( \*(Aq\-|\*(Aq )\*(C'\fR and the child process spews data
to the parant which slurps it in.  All of the options that control how
the data is returned to the caller still work in this case.
.PP
If the first argument is an overloaded object then its stringified value
is used for the filename and that file is opened.  This is a new feature
in 9999.14. See the stringify.t test for an example.
.PP
By default \f(CW\*(C`read_file\*(C'\fR returns an undef in scalar contex or a single
undef in list context if it encounters an error. Those are both
impossible to get with a clean read_file call which means you can check
the return value and always know if you had an error. You can change how
errors are handled with the \f(CW\*(C`err_mode\*(C'\fR option.
.PP
Speed Note: If you call read_file and just get a scalar return value
it is now optimized to handle shorter files. This is only used if no
options are used, the file is shorter then 100k bytes, the filename is
a plain scalar and a scalar file is returned. If you want the fastest
slurping, use the \f(CW\*(C`buf_ref\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`scalar_ref\*(C'\fR options (see below)
.PP
\&\s-1NOTE:\s0 as of version 9999.06, read_file works correctly on the \f(CW\*(C`DATA\*(C'\fR
handle. It used to need a sysseek workaround but that is now handled
when needed by the module itself.
.PP
You can optionally request that \f(CW\*(C`slurp()\*(C'\fR is exported to your code. This
is an alias for read_file and is meant to be forward compatible with
Perl 6 (which will have \fIslurp()\fR built-in).
.PP
The options for \f(CW\*(C`read_file\*(C'\fR are:
.PP
\fIbinmode\fR
.IX Subsection "binmode"
.PP
If you set the binmode option, then its value is passed to a call to
binmode on the opened handle. You can use this to set the file to be
read in binary mode, utf8, etc. See perldoc \-f binmode for more.
.PP
.Vb 2
\&        my $bin_data = read_file( $bin_file, binmode => \*(Aq:raw\*(Aq ) ;
\&        my $utf_text = read_file( $bin_file, binmode => \*(Aq:utf8\*(Aq ) ;
.Ve
.PP
\fIarray_ref\fR
.IX Subsection "array_ref"
.PP
If this boolean option is set, the return value (only in scalar
context) will be an array reference which contains the lines of the
slurped file. The following two calls are equivalent:
.PP
.Vb 2
\&        my $lines_ref = read_file( $bin_file, array_ref => 1 ) ;
\&        my $lines_ref = [ read_file( $bin_file ) ] ;
.Ve
.PP
\fIchomp\fR
.IX Subsection "chomp"
.PP
If this boolean option is set, the lines are chomped. This only
happens if you are slurping in a list context or using the
\&\f(CW\*(C`array_ref\*(C'\fR option.
.PP
\fIscalar_ref\fR
.IX Subsection "scalar_ref"
.PP
If this boolean option is set, the return value (only in scalar
context) will be an scalar reference to a string which is the contents
of the slurped file. This will usually be faster than returning the
plain scalar. It will also save memory as it will not make a copy of
the file to return. Run the extras/slurp_bench.pl script to see speed
comparisons.
.PP
.Vb 1
\&        my $text_ref = read_file( $bin_file, scalar_ref => 1 ) ;
.Ve
.PP
\fIbuf_ref\fR
.IX Subsection "buf_ref"
.PP
You can use this option to pass in a scalar reference and the slurped
file contents will be stored in the scalar. This can be used in
conjunction with any of the other options. This saves an extra copy of
the slurped file and can lower ram usage vs returning the file. It is
usually the fastest way to read a file into a scalar. Run the
extras/slurp_bench.pl script to see speed comparisons.
.PP
.Vb 1
\&        read_file( $bin_file, buf_ref => \e$buffer ) ;
.Ve
.PP
\fIblk_size\fR
.IX Subsection "blk_size"
.PP
You can use this option to set the block size used when slurping from
an already open handle (like \e*STDIN). It defaults to 1MB.
.PP
.Vb 2
\&        my $text_ref = read_file( $bin_file, blk_size => 10_000_000,
\&                                             array_ref => 1 ) ;
.Ve
.PP
\fIerr_mode\fR
.IX Subsection "err_mode"
.PP
You can use this option to control how read_file behaves when an error
occurs. This option defaults to 'croak'. You can set it to 'carp' or to
\&'quiet to have no special error handling. This code wants to carp and
then read another file if it fails.
.PP
.Vb 2
\&        my $text_ref = read_file( $file, err_mode => \*(Aqcarp\*(Aq ) ;
\&        unless ( $text_ref ) {
\&
\&                # read a different file but croak if not found
\&                $text_ref = read_file( $another_file ) ;
\&        }
\&        
\&        # process ${$text_ref}
.Ve
.SS "\fBwrite_file\fP"
.IX Subsection "write_file"
This sub writes out an entire file in one call.
.PP
.Vb 1
\&  write_file( \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq, @data ) ;
.Ve
.PP
The first argument to \f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR is the filename. The next argument
is an optional hash reference and it contains key/values that can
modify the behavior of \f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR. The rest of the argument list is
the data to be written to the file.
.PP
.Vb 2
\&  write_file( \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq, {append => 1 }, @data ) ;
\&  write_file( \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq, {binmode => \*(Aq:raw\*(Aq}, $buffer ) ;
.Ve
.PP
As a shortcut if the first data argument is a scalar or array reference,
it is used as the only data to be written to the file. Any following
arguments in \f(CW@_\fR are ignored. This is a faster way to pass in the output
to be written to the file and is equivalent to the \f(CW\*(C`buf_ref\*(C'\fR option of
\&\f(CW\*(C`read_file\*(C'\fR. These following pairs are equivalent but the pass by
reference call will be faster in most cases (especially with larger
files).
.PP
.Vb 2
\&  write_file( \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq, \e$buffer ) ;
\&  write_file( \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq, $buffer ) ;
\&
\&  write_file( \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq, \e@lines ) ;
\&  write_file( \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq, @lines ) ;
.Ve
.PP
If the first argument is a handle (if it is a ref and is an \s-1IO\s0 or \s-1GLOB\s0
object), then that handle is written to. This mode is supported so you
spew to handles such as \e*STDOUT. See the test handle.t for an example
that does \f(CW\*(C`open( \*(Aq\-|\*(Aq )\*(C'\fR and child process spews data to the parent
which slurps it in.  All of the options that control how the data are
passed into \f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR still work in this case.
.PP
If the first argument is an overloaded object then its stringified value
is used for the filename and that file is opened.  This is new feature
in 9999.14. See the stringify.t test for an example.
.PP
By default \f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR returns 1 upon successfully writing the file or
undef if it encountered an error. You can change how errors are handled
with the \f(CW\*(C`err_mode\*(C'\fR option.
.PP
The options are:
.PP
\fIbinmode\fR
.IX Subsection "binmode"
.PP
If you set the binmode option, then its value is passed to a call to
binmode on the opened handle. You can use this to set the file to be
read in binary mode, utf8, etc. See perldoc \-f binmode for more.
.PP
.Vb 2
\&        write_file( $bin_file, {binmode => \*(Aq:raw\*(Aq}, @data ) ;
\&        write_file( $bin_file, {binmode => \*(Aq:utf8\*(Aq}, $utf_text ) ;
.Ve
.PP
\fIperms\fR
.IX Subsection "perms"
.PP
The perms option sets the permissions of newly-created files. This value
is modified by your process's umask and defaults to 0666 (same as
sysopen).
.PP
\&\s-1NOTE:\s0 this option is new as of File::Slurp version 9999.14;
.PP
\fIbuf_ref\fR
.IX Subsection "buf_ref"
.PP
You can use this option to pass in a scalar reference which has the
data to be written. If this is set then any data arguments (including
the scalar reference shortcut) in \f(CW@_\fR will be ignored. These are
equivalent:
.PP
.Vb 3
\&        write_file( $bin_file, { buf_ref => \e$buffer } ) ;
\&        write_file( $bin_file, \e$buffer ) ;
\&        write_file( $bin_file, $buffer ) ;
.Ve
.PP
\fIatomic\fR
.IX Subsection "atomic"
.PP
If you set this boolean option, the file will be written to in an
atomic fashion. A temporary file name is created by appending the pid
($$) to the file name argument and that file is spewed to. After the
file is closed it is renamed to the original file name (and rename is
an atomic operation on most \s-1OS\s0's). If the program using this were to
crash in the middle of this, then the file with the pid suffix could
be left behind.
.PP
\fIappend\fR
.IX Subsection "append"
.PP
If you set this boolean option, the data will be written at the end of
the current file. Internally this sets the sysopen mode flag O_APPEND.
.PP
.Vb 1
\&        write_file( $file, {append => 1}, @data ) ;
\&
\& You
\&can import append_file and it does the same thing.
.Ve
.PP
\fIno_clobber\fR
.IX Subsection "no_clobber"
.PP
If you set this boolean option, an existing file will not be overwritten.
.PP
.Vb 1
\&        write_file( $file, {no_clobber => 1}, @data ) ;
.Ve
.PP
\fIerr_mode\fR
.IX Subsection "err_mode"
.PP
You can use this option to control how \f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR behaves when an
error occurs. This option defaults to 'croak'. You can set it to
\&'carp' or to 'quiet' to have no error handling other than the return
value. If the first call to \f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR fails it will carp and then
write to another file. If the second call to \f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR fails, it
will croak.
.PP
.Vb 1
\&        unless ( write_file( $file, { err_mode => \*(Aqcarp\*(Aq, \e$data ) ;
\&
\&                # write a different file but croak if not found
\&                write_file( $other_file, \e$data ) ;
\&        }
.Ve
.SS "overwrite_file"
.IX Subsection "overwrite_file"
This sub is just a typeglob alias to write_file since write_file
always overwrites an existing file. This sub is supported for
backwards compatibility with the original version of this module. See
write_file for its \s-1API\s0 and behavior.
.SS "append_file"
.IX Subsection "append_file"
This sub will write its data to the end of the file. It is a wrapper
around write_file and it has the same \s-1API\s0 so see that for the full
documentation. These calls are equivalent:
.PP
.Vb 2
\&        append_file( $file, @data ) ;
\&        write_file( $file, {append => 1}, @data ) ;
.Ve
.SS "prepend_file"
.IX Subsection "prepend_file"
This sub writes data to the beginning of a file. The previously existing
data is written after that so the effect is prepending data in front of
a file. It is a counterpart to the append_file sub in this module. It
works by first using \f(CW\*(C`read_file\*(C'\fR to slurp in the file and then calling
\&\f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR with the new data and the existing file data.
.PP
The first argument to \f(CW\*(C`prepend_file\*(C'\fR is the filename. The next argument
is an optional hash reference and it contains key/values that can modify
the behavior of \f(CW\*(C`prepend_file\*(C'\fR. The rest of the argument list is the
data to be written to the file and that is passed to \f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR as is
(see that for allowed data).
.PP
Only the \f(CW\*(C`binmode\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`err_mode\*(C'\fR options are supported. The
\&\f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR call has the \f(CW\*(C`atomic\*(C'\fR option set so you will always have
a consistant file. See above for more about those options.
.PP
\&\f(CW\*(C`prepend_file\*(C'\fR is not exported by default, you need to import it
explicitly.
.PP
.Vb 4
\&        use File::Slurp qw( prepend_file ) ;
\&        prepend_file( $file, $header ) ;
\&        prepend_file( $file, \e@lines ) ;
\&        prepend_file( $file, { binmode => \*(Aqraw:\*(Aq}, $bin_data ) ;
.Ve
.SS "edit_file, edit_file_lines"
.IX Subsection "edit_file, edit_file_lines"
These subs read in a file into \f(CW$_\fR, execute a code block which should
modify \f(CW$_\fR and then write \f(CW$_\fR back to the file. The difference between
them is that \f(CW\*(C`edit_file\*(C'\fR reads the whole file into \f(CW$_\fR and calls the
code block one time. With \f(CW\*(C`edit_file_lines\*(C'\fR each line is read into \f(CW$_\fR
and the code is called for each line. In both cases the code should
modify \f(CW$_\fR if desired and it will be written back out. These subs are
the equivalent of the \-pi command line options of Perl but you can
call them from inside your program and not fork out a process. They
are in \f(CW@EXPORT_OK\fR so you need to request them to be imported on the
use line or you can import both of them with:
.PP
.Vb 1
\&        use File::Slurp qw( :edit ) ;
.Ve
.PP
The first argument to \f(CW\*(C`edit_file\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`edit_file_lines\*(C'\fR is a code
block or a code reference. The code block is not followed by a comma
(as with grep and map) but a code reference is followed by a
comma. See the examples below for both styles. The next argument is
the filename. The last argument is an optional hash reference and it
contains key/values that can modify the behavior of
\&\f(CW\*(C`prepend_file\*(C'\fR.
.PP
Only the \f(CW\*(C`binmode\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`err_mode\*(C'\fR options are supported. The
\&\f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR call has the \f(CW\*(C`atomic\*(C'\fR option set so you will always
have a consistant file. See above for more about those options.
.PP
Each group of calls below show a Perl command line instance and the
equivalent calls to \f(CW\*(C`edit_file\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`edit_file_lines\*(C'\fR.
.PP
.Vb 6
\&        perl \-0777 \-pi \-e \*(Aqs/foo/bar/g\*(Aq filename
\&        use File::Slurp qw( edit_file ) ;
\&        edit_file { s/foo/bar/g } \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq ;
\&        edit_file sub { s/foo/bar/g }, \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq ;
\&        edit_file \e&replace_foo, \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq ;
\&        sub replace_foo { s/foo/bar/g }
\&
\&        perl \-pi \-e \*(Aq$_ = "" if /foo/\*(Aq filename
\&        use File::Slurp qw( edit_file_lines ) ;
\&        use File::Slurp ;
\&        edit_file_lines { $_ = \*(Aq\*(Aq if /foo/ } \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq ;
\&        edit_file_lines sub { $_ = \*(Aq\*(Aq if /foo/ }, \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq ;
\&        edit_file \e&delete_foo, \*(Aqfilename\*(Aq ;
\&        sub delete_foo { $_ = \*(Aq\*(Aq if /foo/ }
.Ve
.SS "read_dir"
.IX Subsection "read_dir"
This sub reads all the file names from directory and returns them to
the caller but \f(CW\*(C`.\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`..\*(C'\fR are removed by default.
.PP
.Vb 1
\&        my @files = read_dir( \*(Aq/path/to/dir\*(Aq ) ;
.Ve
.PP
The first argument is the path to the directory to read.  If the next
argument is a hash reference, then it is used as the options.
Otherwise the rest of the argument list are is used as key/value
options.
.PP
In list context \f(CW\*(C`read_dir\*(C'\fR returns a list of the entries in the
directory. In a scalar context it returns an array reference which has
the entries.
.PP
\fIerr_mode\fR
.IX Subsection "err_mode"
.PP
If the \f(CW\*(C`err_mode\*(C'\fR option is set, it selects how errors are handled (see
\&\f(CW\*(C`err_mode\*(C'\fR in \f(CW\*(C`read_file\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`write_file\*(C'\fR).
.PP
\fIkeep_dot_dot\fR
.IX Subsection "keep_dot_dot"
.PP
If this boolean option is set, \f(CW\*(C`.\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`..\*(C'\fR are not removed from the
list of files.
.PP
.Vb 1
\&        my @all_files = read_dir( \*(Aq/path/to/dir\*(Aq, keep_dot_dot => 1 ) ;
.Ve
.PP
\fIprefix\fR
.IX Subsection "prefix"
.PP
If this boolean option is set, the string \*(L"$dir/\*(R" is prefixed to each
dir entry. This means you can directly use the results to open
files. A common newbie mistake is not putting the directory in front
of entries when opening themn.
.PP
.Vb 1
\&        my @paths = read_dir( \*(Aq/path/to/dir\*(Aq, prefix => 1 ) ;
.Ve
.SS "\s-1EXPORT\s0"
.IX Subsection "EXPORT"
.Vb 2
\&  These are exported by default or with
\&        use File::Slurp qw( :std ) ;
\&
\&  read_file write_file overwrite_file append_file read_dir
\&
\&  These are exported with
\&        use File::Slurp qw( :edit ) ;
\&
\&  edit_file edit_file_lines
\&
\&  You can get all subs in the module exported with 
\&        use File::Slurp qw( :all ) ;
.Ve
.SS "\s-1LICENSE\s0"
.IX Subsection "LICENSE"
.Vb 1
\&  Same as Perl.
.Ve
.SS "\s-1SEE ALSO\s0"
.IX Subsection "SEE ALSO"
An article on file slurping in extras/slurp_article.pod. There is
also a benchmarking script in extras/slurp_bench.pl.
.SS "\s-1BUGS\s0"
.IX Subsection "BUGS"
If run under Perl 5.004, slurping from the \s-1DATA\s0 handle will fail as
that requires B.pm which didn't get into core until 5.005.
.SH "AUTHOR"
.IX Header "AUTHOR"
Uri Guttman, <uri \s-1AT\s0 stemsystems \s-1DOT\s0 com>