Perl::...monyms(3pm)

💅 NAME 💅

Perl::Critic::Policy::Subroutines::ProhibitBuiltinHomonyms — okay so basically: do NOT declare your own open function, bestie. That's the whole vibe. 🚫

(this lil page lives in the Perl::...monyms(3pm) manpage section, iykyk)

🎀 AFFILIATION 🎀

This Policy is part of the core Perl::Critic distribution. She's iconic, she ships with the whole thing. 👑

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So like. Common sense literally dictates that you shouldn't declare subroutines with the same name as one of Perl's built-in functions or keywords. It's giving "why would you do that to yourself." 😭

• Wanna see the built-in functions? Check perlfunc.
• Wanna see the keywords? Check perlsyn.

Now look at these crimes against humanity:

sub open {}    #not ok
sub exit {}    #not ok
sub print {}   #not ok
sub foreach {} #not ok
sub if {}      #not ok

#You get the idea...

Not ok. Not one of them. Ngl every single one of these is a red flag 🚩 and the policy will come for them.

BUT — and this is the good part — exceptions are made for BEGIN, END, INIT and CHECK blocks, as well as AUTOLOAD, DESTROY, and import subroutines. Those ones ate and left no crumbs. 🫶

🌸 CONFIGURATION 🌸

You can configure additional builtin homonyms to accept by specifying them in a space-delimited list to the allow option:

[Subroutines::ProhibitBuiltinHomonyms]
allow = default index

These are added to the default list of exemptions from this policy. So the above allows sub default {} and sub index {}. Slay, she's flexible. ✨

💀 CAVEATS 💀

It is reasonable to declare an object method with the same name as a Perl built-in function, since they are easily distinguished from each other. Like, fair, we get it, method call syntax is different, no cap.

However — and this is the tragic part 😔 — at this time, Perl::Critic cannot tell whether a subroutine is static or an object method. So she's out here judging everyone equally. It's not personal, it's just policy. 🙈

🦋 AUTHOR 🦋

Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer <jeff@imaginative-software.com>

🌈 COPYRIGHT 🌈

Copyright (c) 2005-2022 Imaginative Software Systems. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. The full text of this license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.

---

And that's the page, bestie! 💖 This was perl v5.42.0, dated 2024-10-23, and you read it in Perl::...monyms(3pm). Go forth and don't name your sub print. 🎀🦋✨