FreeBSD manual
download PDF document: FindBin.3.pdf
FindBin(3) Perl Programmers Reference Guide FindBin(3)
NAME
FindBin - Locate directory of original perl script
SYNOPSIS
use FindBin;
use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../lib";
or
use FindBin qw($Bin);
use lib "$Bin/../lib";
DESCRIPTION
Locates the full path to the script bin directory to allow the use of
paths relative to the bin directory.
This allows a user to setup a directory tree for some software with
directories "<root>/bin" and "<root>/lib", and then the above example
will allow the use of modules in the lib directory without knowing
where the software tree is installed.
If perl is invoked using the -e option or the perl script is read from
"STDIN" then FindBin sets both $Bin and $RealBin to the current
directory.
EXPORTABLE VARIABLES
$Bin - path to bin directory from where script was invoked
$Script - basename of script from which perl was invoked
$RealBin - $Bin with all links resolved
$RealScript - $Script with all links resolved
KNOWN ISSUES
If there are two modules using "FindBin" from different directories
under the same interpreter, this won't work. Since "FindBin" uses a
"BEGIN" block, it'll be executed only once, and only the first caller
will get it right. This is a problem under mod_perl and other
persistent Perl environments, where you shouldn't use this module.
Which also means that you should avoid using "FindBin" in modules that
you plan to put on CPAN. To make sure that "FindBin" will work is to
call the "again" function:
use FindBin;
FindBin::again(); # or FindBin->again;
In former versions of FindBin there was no "again" function. The
workaround was to force the "BEGIN" block to be executed again:
delete $INC{'FindBin.pm'};
require FindBin;
AUTHORS
FindBin is supported as part of the core perl distribution. Please send
bug reports to <perlbug@perl.org> using the perlbug program included
with perl.
Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com> Nick Ing-Simmons <nik@tiuk.ti.com>