The Perl Toolchain Summit needs more sponsors. If your company depends on Perl, please support this very important event.
 / 
Capture-Tiny-0.02
River stage four • 612 direct dependents • 8770 total dependents
103 ++
/ Capture::Tiny

NAME

Capture::Tiny - Capture STDOUT and STDERR from Perl, XS or external programs

VERSION

This documentation describes version 0.02.

SYNOPSIS

     use Capture::Tiny qw/capture tee/;
 
     ($stdout, $stderr) = capture {
       # your code here
     };
 
     ($stdout, $stderr) = tee {
       # your code here 
     };

DESCRIPTION

Capture::Tiny provides a simple, portable way to capture anything sent to STDOUT or STDERR, regardless of whether it comes from Perl, from XS code or from an external program. Optionally, output can be teed so that it is captured while being passed through to the original handles. Yes, it even works on Windows. Stop guessing which of a dozen capturing modules to use in any particular situation and just use this one.

This module was heavily inspired by IO::CaptureOutput, which provides similar functionality without the ability to tee output and with more complicated code and API.

USAGE

The following functions are available. None are exported by default.

capture

   ($stdout, $stderr) = capture \&code;
   $stdout = capture \&code;

The capture function takes a code reference and returns what is sent to STDOUT and STDERR. In scalar context, it returns only STDOUT. If no output was received, returns an empty string. Regardless of context, all output is captured -- nothing is passed to the existing handles.

It is prototyped to take a subroutine reference as an argument. Thus, it can be called in block form:

   ($stdout, $stderr) = capture {
     # your code here ...
   };

tee

   ($stdout, $stderr) = tee \&code;
   $stdout = tee \&code;

The tee function works just like capture, except that output is captured as well as passed on to the original STDOUT and STDERR. As with capture it may be called in block form.

LIMITATIONS

Portability is a goal, not a guarantee. tee requires fork, except on Windows where system(1, @cmd) is used instead. Not tested on any esoteric platforms yet. Minimal test suite so far.

No support for merging STDERR with STDOUT. This may be added in the future.

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature using the CPAN Request Tracker. Bugs can be submitted through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Capture-Tiny

When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.

SEE ALSO

This is a selection of CPAN modules that provide some sort of output capture, albeit with various limitations that make them appropriate only in particular circumstances. I'm probably missing some. The long list is provided to show why I felt Capture::Tiny was necessary.

AUTHOR

David A. Golden (DAGOLDEN)

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2009 by David A. Golden. All rights reserved.

Licensed under Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. A copy of the License was distributed with this file or you may obtain a copy of the License from http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Files produced as output though the use of this software, shall not be considered Derivative Works, but shall be considered the original work of the Licensor.

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.