blib(3perl)

💖 blib — the perl (3perl) manual page, bestie edition 💖

okay so you found a 3perl page?? iconic. this one lives in section 3 of the perl manual, and it's literally the smallest little tool with the biggest "trust me it works" energy. let's get into it.

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✨ NAME ✨

blib — bestie, this is how you use MakeMaker's uninstalled version of a package 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

perl -Mblib script [args...]

perl -Mblib=dir script [args...]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the vibe: this thing goes looking for a MakeMaker-ish blib directory structure. it starts in dir (or, if you didn't give it one, the current directory) and climbs back up through .., .., .. — up to five levels deep. five!! that's the limit, that's the whole quest. 💅

the intended use is on the command line, with the -M option, as a way of testing arbitrary scripts against an uninstalled version of a package. that's the main character moment. that's the whole point.

however — and this is where it gets unhinged — it is possible to do this:

use blib;

or

use blib '..';

etc. if you really must. 😭 like. if there's no other way. if you've exhausted every option. fine. go off i guess.

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💀 BUGS 💀

ngl it pollutes the global name space. but it's for a development-only task, so it's giving "we accept this, it's fine, it's camp". 🙈

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Nick Ing-Simmons — nik@tiuk.ti.com 👑

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okay that's the whole page, no cap. this was perl v5.44.0, dated 2026-10-17, and it's filed under blib(3perl). slay, go test your uninstalled packages, ily bestie 🎀✨🌈