B::Deparse - Perl compiler backend to produce perl code |
B::Deparse - Perl compiler backend to produce perl code
perl -MO=Deparse[,-uPACKAGE][,-p][,-q][,-l] [,-sLETTERS][,-xLEVEL] prog.pl
B::Deparse is a backend module for the Perl compiler that generates perl source code, based on the internal compiled structure that perl itself creates after parsing a program. The output of B::Deparse won't be exactly the same as the original source, since perl doesn't keep track of comments or whitespace, and there isn't a one-to-one correspondence between perl's syntactical constructions and their compiled form, but it will often be close. When you use the -p option, the output also includes parentheses even when they are not required by precedence, which can make it easy to see if perl is parsing your expressions the way you intended.
Please note that this module is mainly new and untested code and is still under development, so it may change in the future.
As with all compiler backend options, these must follow directly after the '-MO=Deparse', separated by a comma but not any white space.
if ($var & 0x7f == 65) {print "Gimme an A!"} print ($which ? $a : $b), "\n"; $name = $ENV{USER} or "Bob";
B::Deparse,-p
will print
if (($var & 0)) { print('Gimme an A!') }; (print(($which ? $a : $b)), '???'); (($name = $ENV{'USER'}) or '???')
which probably isn't what you intended (the '???'
is a sign that
perl optimized away a constant value).
print "Hello, $world, @ladies, \u$gentlemen\E, \u\L$me!";
as
print 'Hello, ' . $world . ', ' . join($", @ladies) . ', ' . ucfirst($gentlemen) . ', ' . ucfirst(lc $me . '!');
Note that the expanded form represents the way perl handles such
constructions internally -- this option actually turns off the reverse
translation that B::Deparse usually does. On the other hand, note that
$x = "$y"
is not the same as $x = $y
: the former makes the value
of $y into a string before doing the assignment.
elsif
, else
, and continue
blocks. For example, print
if (...) { ... } else { ... }
instead of
if (...) { ... } else { ... }
The default is not to cuddle.
If LEVEL is at least 3, for loops will be translated into equivalent while loops with continue blocks; for instance
for ($i = 0; $i < 10; ++$i) { print $i; }
turns into
$i = 0; while ($i < 10) { print $i; } continue { ++$i }
Note that in a few cases this translation can't be perfectly carried back into the source code -- if the loop's initializer declares a my variable, for instance, it won't have the correct scope outside of the loop.
If LEVEL is at least 7, if statements will be translated into equivalent
expressions using &&
, ?:
and do {}
; for instance
print 'hi' if $nice; if ($nice) { print 'hi'; } if ($nice) { print 'hi'; } else { print 'bye'; }
turns into
$nice and print 'hi'; $nice and do { print 'hi' }; $nice ? do { print 'hi' } : do { print 'bye' };
Long sequences of elsifs will turn into nested ternary operators, which B::Deparse doesn't know how to indent nicely.
use B::Deparse; $deparse = B::Deparse->new("-p", "-sC"); $body = $deparse->coderef2text(\&func); eval "sub func $body"; # the inverse operation
B::Deparse can also be used on a sub-by-sub basis from other perl programs.
$deparse = B::Deparse->new(OPTIONS)
Create an object to store the state of a deparsing operation and any options. The options are the same as those that can be given on the command line (see OPTIONS); options that are separated by commas after -MO=Deparse should be given as separate strings. Some options, like -u, don't make sense for a single subroutine, so don't pass them.
$body = $deparse->coderef2text(\&func) $body = $deparse->coderef2text(sub ($$) { ... })
Return source code for the body of a subroutine (a block, optionally preceded by a prototype in parens), given a reference to the sub. Because a subroutine can have no names, or more than one name, this method doesn't return a complete subroutine definition -- if you want to eval the result, you should prepend ``sub subname '', or ``sub '' for an anonymous function constructor. Unless the sub was defined in the main:: package, the code will include a package declaration.
See the 'to do' list at the beginning of the module file.
Stephen McCamant <smcc@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>, based on an earlier version by Malcolm Beattie <mbeattie@sable.ox.ac.uk>, with contributions from Gisle Aas, James Duncan, Albert Dvornik, Hugo van der Sanden, Gurusamy Sarathy, and Nick Ing-Simmons.
B::Deparse - Perl compiler backend to produce perl code |