Question

I have some code the requires the application to be completely loaded and compiled before it should be executed.

Is there a way to check whether my Perl program is still in the compilation stage?

I have something that works, but there must be a better way:

sub check_compile {
  printf("checking\n");
  foreach my $depth (0..10) {
    my ($package, $filename, $line, $subroutine) = caller($depth);
    last unless (defined($package));

    printf("  %s %s %s %s %s\n", $depth, $package, $filename, $line, $subroutine);

    if ($subroutine =~ /::BEGIN$/) {
      printf("in compile\n");
      return 1;
    }

  }

  printf("not in compile\n");
  return 0;
}


BEGIN {
  check_compile();
}

use subpkg;

check_compile();

and subpkg.pm contains:

package subpkg;

use strict;
use warnings;

printf("initing subpkg\n");
main::check_compile();

1; # successfully loaded

Answer 1

I assume your code doesn’t make much use of eval – otherwise compilation will be taking place ‘mixed in’ with execution – but you might review the use of INIT and similar blocks here as a possible way to simplify this.

INIT blocks are run just before the
Perl runtime begins execution, in
“first in, first out” (FIFO) order.