NAME

B::Deparse - Perl compiler backend to produce perl code

SYNOPSIS

  perl -MO=Deparse[,-uPACKAGE] prog.pl >prog2.pl

DESCRIPTION

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. One feature of the output is that it includes parentheses even when they are not required for 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.

OPTIONS

There is currently only one option; as with all compiler options, it must follow directly after the '-MO=Deparse', separated by a comma but not any white space.

-uPACKAGE

Normally, B::Deparse deparses the main code of a program, all the subs called by the main program (and all the subs called by them, recursively), and any other subs in the main:: package. To include subs in other packages that aren't called directly, such as AUTOLOAD, DESTROY, other subs called automatically by perl, and methods, which aren't resolved to subs until runtime, use the -u option. The argument to -u is the name of a package, and should follow directly after the 'u'. Multiple -u options may be given, separated by commas. Note that unlike some other backends, B::Deparse doesn't (yet) try to guess automatically when -u is needed -- you must invoke it yourself.

BUGS

See the 'to do' list at the beginning of the module file.

AUTHOR

Stephen McCamant <alias@mcs.com>, based on an earlier version by Malcolm Beattie <mbeattie@sable.ox.ac.uk>.