use Symbol;
$sym = gensym;
open($sym, "filename");
$_ = <$sym>;
# etc.
ungensym $sym; # no effect
print qualify("x"), "\n"; # "Test::x"
print qualify("x", "FOO"), "\n" # "FOO::x"
print qualify("BAR::x"), "\n"; # "BAR::x"
print qualify("BAR::x", "FOO"), "\n"; # "BAR::x"
print qualify("STDOUT", "FOO"), "\n"; # "main::STDOUT" (global)
print qualify(\*x), "\n"; # returns \*x
print qualify(\*x, "FOO"), "\n"; # returns \*x
Symbol::gensym creates an anonymous glob and returns a reference to it. Such a glob
reference can be used as a file or directory handle.
For backward compatibility with older implementations that didn't support
anonymous globs, Symbol::ungensym is also provided. But it doesn't do anything.
Symbol::qualify turns unqualified symbol names into qualified variable names (e.g.
``myvar'' -> ``MyPackage::myvar''). If it is given a second parameter, qualify uses it as the default package; otherwise, it uses the package of its caller. Regardless, global variable names (e.g.
``STDOUT'',
``ENV'',
``SIG'') are always qualfied with ``main::''.
Qualification applies only to symbol names (strings). References are left unchanged under the assumption that they are glob references, which are qualified by their nature.