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From: dcd@tc.fluke.COM (David Dyck)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: perldb changes (or bug in manual)
Keywords: perldb.pl do require
Message-ID: <1990Aug26.055821.22669@tc.fluke.COM>
Date: 26 Aug 90 05:58:21 GMT
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 50

The perl manual states:
 
     If you want to modify the debugger, copy perldb.pl from  the
     perl  library  to  your  current  directory and modify it as
     necessary.

The source file perldb.pl states:
# .... It also inserts a do 'perldb.pl' before the first line.

In perl PL18 I could load a custom perldb.pl script
in the current directory, and it would get used when
invoking 'perl -d';

In PL28 this feature is no longer enabled, and perl 
(by default) looks in the 'standard library places'.
I can use the -I . to cause it to look in the current directory.

The sources indicate that PL28 looks for 'perldb.pl' with 'require', and
PL18 looked with 'do'.

1)  Why doesn't 'require' look in the current directory first?

2)  Are the manual and comments in perldb.pl wrong?

3)  The reason I wanted to customize the library is I run under SunOS
	using "on -i hostname" a lot, and the following perldb.pl lines
	fail:

open(IN,"/dev/tty");           # so we don't dingle stdin
open(OUT,">/dev/tty"); # so we don't dongle stdout

	If these line were change to the following I would not
	need to do this customization.  

open(IN,"/dev/tty")   || open(IN,"<&STDIN");   # so we don't dingle stdin
open(OUT,">/dev/tty") || open(OUT,">&STDOUT"); # so we don't dongle stdout

	Does anyone see anything wrong with making this change?

PS.
	perl patch 28 has not appeared in comp.lang.perl here in the
	northwest.  I was able to get a copy from Larry's patch server.
		 (thanks)


            David Dyck
    Domain: dcd@tc.fluke.COM
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