The base class for all other IO handle classes. Its main purpose is for the other IO classes to inherit from it; programs should not create IO::Handle objects directly. Provides the following methods.
| new | 
new
Constructor. Creates a new IO::Handle object.
| new_from_fd | 
new_from_fd (fd, mode)
Constructor. Like new, creates an IO::Handle object. It requires two parameters, which are passed to the method fdopen; if fdopen fails, the object is destroyed. Otherwise, it is returned to the caller.
| clearerr | 
$fh->clearerr
Clears the given handle's error indicator.
| error | 
$fh->error
Returns true if the given handle has experienced any errors since it was opened or since the last call to clearerr.
| fdopen | 
$fh->fdopen (fd, mode)
Like an ordinary open except that the first parameter is a filehandle name, an IO::Handle object, or a file descriptor number.
| flush | 
$fh->flush
Flushes the given handle's buffer.
| getline | 
$fh->getline
Works like <$fh>, described in the section on "I/O Operators" in the perlop manpage, but is more readable and can be safely called in an array context, while still returning one line.
| getlines | 
$fh->getlines
Works like <$fh> when called in an array context to read all the remaining lines in a file, but is more readable. croak s if called in scalar context.
| opened | 
$fh->opened
Returns true if the object is currently a valid file descriptor.
| ungetc | 
$fh->ungetc (ord)
Pushes a character with the ordinal value ord back onto the given handle's input stream.
| untaint | 
$fh->untaint
Special method for working under -T and setuid/gid scripts. Marks the object as taint-clean, and as such, data read from it is also considered taint-clean.
| write | 
$fh->write (buf, len[, offset])
Like write found in C; that is, the opposite of read. The wrapper for the Perl write function is format_write.
IO::Handle also provides the following methods, which are not described in detail here because they are simply frontends for the corresponding built-in functions. See Chapter 5, "Function Reference" for more information.
| 
 Method  | 
 Description  | 
|---|---|
| 
 close  | 
 Closes file or pipe  | 
| 
 eof  | 
 Returns 1 if next read will return end-of-file  | 
| 
 fileno  | 
 Returns file descriptor for a filehandle  | 
| 
 getc  | 
 Returns next character from input file  | 
| 
 | 
 Prints a string or comma-separated list of strings  | 
| 
 printf  | 
 Prints a formatted string  | 
| 
 read  | 
 Reads data from a filehandle  | 
| 
 stat  | 
 Returns an array of status information for a file  | 
| 
 sysread  | 
 Reads data from a filehandle with system call read(2)  | 
| 
 syswrite  | 
 Writes data to a filehandle with system call write(2)  | 
| 
 truncate  | 
 Truncates a file to a specified length  | 
Finally, the following methods act on the equivalent Perl variables. See Chapter 4, "The Perl Language" for more information.
| 
 Method  | 
 Description  | 
|---|---|
| 
 autoflush  | 
 If nonzero, forces a flush now and after each write or print (default 0)  | 
| 
 format_page_number  | 
 Current page number  | 
| 
 format_lines_per_page  | 
 Current page length (default 60)  | 
| 
 format_lines_left  | 
 Number of lines left on page  | 
| 
 format_name  | 
 Name of current report format  | 
| 
 format_top_name  | 
 Name of current top-of-page format  | 
| 
 format_line_break_characters  | 
 Current set of linebreak chars for a format  | 
| 
 format_formfeed  | 
 Formfeed char used by formats (default \f)  | 
| 
 format_write  | 
 Wrapper for write function  | 
| 
 input_record_separator  | 
 Input record separator (default newline)  | 
| 
 input_line_number  | 
 Current input line number for last filehandle accessed  | 
| 
 output_field_separator  | 
 Output field separator for print  | 
| 
 output_record_separator  | 
 Output record separator for print  | 
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