Question

Here’s what I’d like to achieve:

sub first {
    print "this is original first";
}

*original_first = \&first;

sub first {
    print "this is first redefined";
}

original_first(); # i expect this to print "this is original first"
first() # i expect this to print "this is first redefined"

I thought that by saving the symbol for first, I’d be able to later call the original subroutine ( under the name original_first ) and to also be able to call first, and get the one redefined. However, if I call the original_first, I still get the “this is first redefined”. What do I have to do to make this work?

Answer 1

This should work as you expect:

sub first {
    print "this is original first";
}

*original_first = \&first;

*first = sub {
    print "this is first redefined";
};