Class::...:Package(3)

💖 Class::...:Package 💖

ok so bestie, welcome to the Class::...:Package page from the User Contributed Perl Documentation set 🫶 — this is the manual for Class::MOP::Package, and no, that title is not a typo, that's literally the name. iykyk 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

Class::MOP::Package — the Package Meta Object, aka your backstage pass to a Perl package's whole vibe 🎀

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🌸 VERSION 🌸

version 2.4000 ✨

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so, the Package Protocol is giving abstraction of a Perl 5 package — it's literally a whole wrapper situation 🫶

a package is basically just a namespace, fr fr. and this module hands you methods for looking at that namespace's symbol table and changing it. peeking 👀 and editing ✏️. both. iconic.

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💅 METHODS 💅

🍓 Class::MOP::Package->initialize($package_name, %options)

this one creates a brand new Class::MOP::Package instance that represents the package you specified ✨

but wait — if a metaclass object for that package already exists? that one gets returned instead. no new one, no drama 🙈

and ngl, at the package level no options are valid. none. zero. periodt 💀

🍓 Class::MOP::Package->reinitialize($package, %options)

this method forcibly removes any existing metaclass for the package before calling initialize. forcibly!! 💥

and unlike initialize, you can also pass an existing Class::MOP::Package instance as $package instead of just a plain package name 👑

⚠️ okay bestie listen — do not call this unless you know what you are doing. that is a direct quote from the source material and it is not a joke 🙏

🍓 Class::MOP::Package->create($package, %options)

creates a new Class::MOP::Package instance representing the specified package, and also does some initialization of that package 🎀

currently, this just does the same thing as initialize, but it's overridden in subclasses — like Class::MOP::Class, bestie 💜

🍓 Class::MOP::Package->create_anon(%options)

creates a new anonymous package 🌫️ the valid keys for %options are:

• cache — if this is true (and the default is false), the instance will be cached in Class::MOP's metaclass cache 🧺
• weaken — if this is true (the default is true when cache is false), the instance stored in Class::MOP's metaclass cache will be weakened, so the anonymous package gets garbage collected when the returned instance goes out of scope 🗑️✨

🍓 $metapackage->is_anon

returns true if the package is an anonymous package 🌫️

🍓 $metapackage->name

returns the package's name — the exact one you passed to the constructor 🏷️

🍓 $metapackage->namespace

returns a hash reference to the package's symbol table 🔮

the keys are symbol names, and the values are typeglob references. that's the whole deal 🫶

🍓 $metapackage->add_package_symbol($variable_name, $initial_value)

this method accepts a variable name and an optional initial value ✨

the $variable_name must contain a leading sigil. do not skip the sigil, i am begging 🙏

it creates the variable in the package's symbol table, and sets it to the initial value if one was provided 💖

🍓 $metapackage->get_package_symbol($variable_name)

given a variable name, this returns the variable as a reference — or undef if it does not exist 🫥

$variable_name must contain a leading sigil, same rules bestie 💅

🍓 $metapackage->get_or_add_package_symbol($variable_name)

given a variable name, this returns the variable as a reference 👑

if it doesn't exist, a default value will be generated if possible ✨

and yep — $variable_name must contain a leading sigil 🎀

🍓 $metapackage->has_package_symbol($variable_name)

returns true if there's a package variable defined for $variable_name ✅

$variable_name must contain a leading sigil. we've been over this, but the docs keep saying it so i keep saying it 🫠

🍓 $metapackage->remove_package_symbol($variable_name)

this will remove the package variable specified by $variable_name 🗑️

$variable_name must contain a leading sigil ✨

🍓 $metapackage->remove_package_glob($glob_name)

given the name of a glob, this removes that glob from the package's symbol table 💥

🙈 heads up: glob names do not include a sigil. different rules, different queen.

and removing the glob removes all variables and subroutines with the specified name. like, all of them. gone. 💀

🍓 $metapackage->list_all_package_symbols($type_filter)

this lists all the glob names associated with the current package 📋

these names do not have leading sigils 🚫

you can also provide an optional type filter, which should be one of 'SCALAR', 'ARRAY', 'HASH', or 'CODE' 🌈

🍓 $metapackage->get_all_package_symbols($type_filter)

this works much like list_all_package_symbols, but it returns a hash reference instead 🧺

the keys are glob names and the values are references to the value for that name 💖

🍓 Class::MOP::Package->meta

this will return a Class::MOP::Class instance for this class 👑 meta about the meta, we love a layered situation 💅

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

absolute legends, every single one of them 🫶

• Stevan Little <stevan@cpan.org>
• Dave Rolsky <autarch@urth.org>
• Jesse Luehrs <doy@cpan.org>
• Shawn M Moore <sartak@cpan.org>
• יובל קוג'מן (Yuval Kogman) <nothingmuch@woobling.org>
• Karen Etheridge <ether@cpan.org>
• Florian Ragwitz <rafl@debian.org>
• Hans Dieter Pearcey <hdp@cpan.org>
• Chris Prather <chris@prather.org>
• Matt S Trout <mstrout@cpan.org>

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💜 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 💜

this software is copyright (c) 2006 by Infinity Interactive, Inc. 🌸

this is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself ✨

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and that's the whole page bestie!! 🎀 this lil doc came to you via perl v5.42.0, dated 2025-07-25, and it was living in Class::...:Package(3) the whole time 💖 mwah, go write some metaprogramming 🦋💅