Perl::...leColon(3pm)

💅 NAME 💅

Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitBarewordDoubleColon — bestie, this is from User Contributed Perl Documentation, and it's here to tell you: don't use Foo:: style barewords, okay? periodt.

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Okay so this policy is part of the Perl::Critic::Pulp add-on 🫶 and it's literally begging you not to use the double-colon bareword like this:

$class = Foo::Bar::;     # bad

and instead write a plain string, like so:

$class = 'Foo::Bar';     # ok

Why tho? Because it's meant as a building block for a restricted coding style, OR it's just a personal preference thing — if you think the "::" is a bit obscure and it's genuinely clearer to write a string when you mean a string, this policy is your girl. On that basis it's the lowest severity and lives under the "cosmetic" theme (see "POLICY THEMES" in Perl::Critic).

🦋 Indirect Object Syntax 🦋

By default a double-colon is allowed in the indirect object syntax (see "Indirect Object Syntax" in perlobj).

my $obj = new Foo::Bar:: $arg1,$arg2;   # ok

And why? Because "::" in there is important, fr fr — it disambiguates a class name "Foo::Bar" from a function Foo::Bar(), i.e. function Bar() in package "Foo". iykyk.

Whether you actually want indirect object syntax is a whole other matter handled by other policies, like "ProhibitIndirectSyntax". If you don't want the double-colon bareword, just switch to arrow style: Foo::Bar->new($arg,...). slay.

💜 Double-Colon Advantages 💜

The "::" bareword is for use on package names, not general bareword quoting. If there's no such package at compile time, a warning gets thrown (see "Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package" in perldiag):

my $class = No::Such::Package::;  # Perl warning

This warning can help pick up typos 🎀 — though ngl it relies on the relevant packages being loaded at compile-time (i.e. "BEGIN"). If the package gets loaded by a "require" at runtime, then the warning fires even though the code runs correctly 😭. For reference, a warning isn't given for the indirect object syntax, which rather limits its benefit. 💀

🌸 Disabling 🌸

If you don't care about any of this, you can always disable ProhibitBarewordDoubleColon from your .perlcriticrc in the usual way (see "CONFIGURATION" in Perl::Critic):

[-ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitBarewordDoubleColon]

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👑 CONFIGURATION 👑

• "allow_indirect_syntax" (boolean, default true) — If true, then allow double-colon in the indirect object syntax as shown above. If false, then report double-colons everywhere as violations:

# bad under allow_indirect_syntax=false
my $obj = new Foo::Bar:: $arg1,$arg2;

This can be controlled from your ~/.perlcriticrc in the usual way. For example:

[ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitBarewordDoubleColon]
allow_indirect_syntax=no

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Perl::Critic::Pulp, Perl::Critic, Perl::Critic::Policy::Objects::ProhibitIndirectSyntax
• ""Foo::" can be used as implicitly quoted package name" in perl5005delta

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🎀 HOME PAGE 🎀

http://user42.tuxfamily.org/perl-critic-pulp/index.html

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💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

Copyright 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 Kevin Ryde

Perl-Critic-Pulp is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any later version.

Perl-Critic-Pulp is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Perl-Critic-Pulp. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses>.

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and that's a wrap bestie 🫶 this was perl v5.40.1, dated 2025-10-21, and it's Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitBarewordDoubleColon(3pm) signing off 💅✨ go forth and quote your strings, mwah