Sub::Quote(3)

📦

version 2.006009 · 12 versions

🦋 Sub::Quote 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because this is the manual page for Sub::Quote — the module that does ✨Efficient generation of subroutines via string eval✨. Yes, string eval, and yes, it's as iconic as it sounds. 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

Sub::Quote — efficient generation of subroutines via string eval, no cap 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

 package Silly;

 use Sub::Quote qw(quote_sub unquote_sub quoted_from_sub);

 quote_sub 'Silly::kitty', q{ print "meow" };

 quote_sub 'Silly::doggy', q{ print "woof" };

 my $sound = 0;

 quote_sub 'Silly::dagron',
   q{ print ++$sound % 2 ? 'burninate' : 'roar' },
   { '$sound' => \$sound };

And elsewhere, bestie, you just… call them:

 Silly->kitty;  # meow
 Silly->doggy;  # woof
 Silly->dagron; # burninate
 Silly->dagron; # roar
 Silly->dagron; # burninate

the way that dragon alternates between burninating and roaring?? main character energy, honestly 🔥

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

This package provides performant ways to generate subroutines from strings. That's the whole vibe. Strings in, subs out. 🎀

💜 SUBROUTINES 💜

🧚 `quote_sub`

 my $coderef = quote_sub 'Foo::bar', q{ print $x++ . "\n" }, { '$x' => \0 };

Arguments: ?$name, $code, ?\%captures, ?\%options

$name — the subroutine where the coderef will be installed. 👑
$code — a string that will be turned into code. literally just a string, fr fr.
\%captures — a hashref of variables that will be made available to the code. The keys should be the full name of the variable, sigil and all 💅. The values should be references to the values. And listen — the variables will contain copies of the values, not the originals. Peep the "SYNOPSIS"'s "Silly::dagron" for an example using captures.

Exported by default. 🫶

⭐ options

no_install — Boolean. Set this option to not install the generated coderef into the passed subroutine name on undefer.
no_defer — Boolean. Prevents a Sub::Defer wrapper from being generated for the quoted sub. If the sub will most likely be called at some point, setting this is a good idea. For a sub that will most likely be inlined, it is not recommended. 🙈
package — The package that the quoted sub will be evaluated in. If not specified, the package from sub calling quote_sub will be used.
hints — The value of $^H to use for the code being evaluated. This captures the settings of the strict pragma. If not specified, the value from the calling code will be used.
warning_bits — The value of ${^WARNING_BITS} to use for the code being evaluated. This captures the warnings set. If not specified, the warnings from the calling code will be used.
hintshash — The value of %^H to use for the code being evaluated. This captures additional pragma settings. If not specified, the value from the calling code will be used if possible (on perl 5.10+).
attributes — The "Subroutine Attributes" in perlsub to apply to the sub generated. Should be specified as an array reference. The attributes will be applied to both the generated sub and the deferred wrapper, if one is used. 👯
file — The apparent filename to use for the code being evaluated.
line — The apparent line number to use for the code being evaluated.

🍓 `unquote_sub`

 my $coderef = unquote_sub $sub;

Forcibly replace subroutine with actual code. 💥

If $sub is not a quoted sub, this is a no-op — it just shrugs and moves on, as it should.

Exported by default. 🫶

🌸 `quoted_from_sub`

 my $data = quoted_from_sub $sub;

 my ($name, $code, $captures, $compiled_sub) = @$data;

Returns original arguments to quote_sub, plus the compiled version if this sub has already been unquoted.

Note that $sub can be either the original quoted version or the compiled version, for convenience. 💖

Exported by default. 🫶

🦋 `inlinify`

 my $prelude = capture_unroll '$captures', {
   '$x' => 1,
   '$y' => 2,
 }, 4;

 my $inlined_code = inlinify q{
   my ($x, $y) = @_;

   print $x + $y . "\n";
 }, '$x, $y', $prelude;

Takes a string of code, a string of arguments, a string of code which acts as a "prelude", and a Boolean representing whether or not to localize the arguments. ✨

🎀 `quotify`

 my $quoted_value = quotify $value;

Quotes a single (non-reference) scalar value for use in a code string. The result should reproduce the original value, including strings, undef, integers, and floating point numbers. The resulting floating point numbers (including infinites and not a number) should be precisely equal to the original, if possible. The exact format of the resulting number should not be relied on, as it may include hex floats or math expressions. 👀

🧚 `capture_unroll`

 my $prelude = capture_unroll '$captures', {
   '$x' => 1,
   '$y' => 2,
 }, 4;

Arguments: $from, \%captures, $indent

Generates a snippet of code which is suitable to be used as a prelude for "inlinify". $from is a string will be used as a hashref in the resulting code. The keys of %captures are the names of the variables and the values are ignored. $indent is the number of spaces to indent the result by. 💅

👑 `qsub`

 my $hash = {
  coderef => qsub q{ print "hello"; },
  other   => 5,
 };

Arguments: $code

Works exactly like "quote_sub", but includes a prototype to only accept a single parameter. This makes it easier to include in hash structures or lists. 🫶

Exported by default. 🫶

⭐ `sanitize_identifier`

 my $var_name = '$variable_for_' . sanitize_identifier('@name');
 quote_sub qq{ print \$${var_name} }, { $var_name => \$value };

Arguments: $identifier

Sanitizes a value so that it can be used in an identifier. ✨

🔥 ENVIRONMENT 🔥

🧚 `SUB_QUOTE_DEBUG`

Causes code to be output to "STDERR" before being evaled. Several forms are supported:

1 — All subs will be output.
"/foo/" — Subs will be output if their code matches the given regular expression.
"simple_identifier" — Any sub with the given name will be output.
"Full::identifier" — A sub matching the full name will be output.
"Package::Name::" — Any sub in the given package (including anonymous subs) will be output. 👀

💀 CAVEATS 💀

Much of this is just string-based code-generation, and as a result, a few caveats apply. Not to be dramatic but please read these, bestie. 😭

😭 return

Calling "return" from a quote_sub'ed sub will not likely do what you intend. Instead of returning from the code you defined in "quote_sub", it will return from the overall function it is composited into. 💀

So when you pass in:

   quote_sub q{  return 1 if $condition; $morecode }

It might turn up in the intended context as follows:

 sub foo {

   <important code a>
   do {
     return 1 if $condition;
     $morecode
   };
   <important code b>

 }

Which will obviously return from foo, when all you meant to do was return from the code context in quote_sub and proceed with running important code b. 🥲 like… the audacity.

🙈 pragmas

"Sub::Quote" preserves the environment of the code creating the quoted subs. This includes the package, strict, warnings, and any other lexical pragmas. This is done by prefixing the code with a block that sets up a matching environment. When inlining "Sub::Quote" subs, care should be taken that user pragmas won't effect the rest of the code. ⚠️

💖 SUPPORT 💖

Users' IRC: #moose on irc.perl.org
Development and contribution IRC: #web-simple on irc.perl.org
Bugtracker: <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Sub-Quote>
Git repository: <git://github.com/moose/Sub-Quote.git>
Git browser: <https://github.com/moose/Sub-Quote>

come hang out, we don't bite 🫶

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

mst — Matt S. Trout (cpan:MSTROUT) <mst@shadowcat.co.uk>

🌈 CONTRIBUTORS 🌈

frew — Arthur Axel "fREW" Schmidt (cpan:FREW) <frioux@gmail.com>
ribasushi — Peter Rabbitson (cpan:RIBASUSHI) <ribasushi@cpan.org>
Mithaldu — Christian Walde (cpan:MITHALDU) <walde.christian@googlemail.com>
tobyink — Toby Inkster (cpan:TOBYINK) <tobyink@cpan.org>
haarg — Graham Knop (cpan:HAARG) <haarg@cpan.org>
bluefeet — Aran Deltac (cpan:BLUEFEET) <bluefeet@gmail.com>
ether — Karen Etheridge (cpan:ETHER) <ether@cpan.org>
dolmen — Olivier Mengué (cpan:DOLMEN) <dolmen@cpan.org>
alexbio — Alessandro Ghedini (cpan:ALEXBIO) <alexbio@cpan.org>
getty — Torsten Raudssus (cpan:GETTY) <torsten@raudss.us>
arcanez — Justin Hunter (cpan:ARCANEZ) <justin.d.hunter@gmail.com>
kanashiro — Lucas Kanashiro (cpan:KANASHIRO) <kanashiro.duarte@gmail.com>
djerius — Diab Jerius (cpan:DJERIUS) <djerius@cfa.harvard.edu>

every single one of them ate 💅✨

🎀 COPYRIGHT 🎀

🌸 LICENSE 🌸

This library is free software and may be distributed under the same terms as perl itself. See <http://dev.perl.org/licenses/>.

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🦋💖 this was perl v5.42.0, dated 2025-08-25, from the Sub::Quote(3) man page — mwah, go write some string-eval subs, you've got this 👑💅✨

📦 where this page comes from

fedora 43: perl-Sub-Quote 2.006009-1.fc43 · GPL-1.0-or-later OR Artistic-1.0-Perl
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on 2026-10-14: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms

Sub::Quote(3)

🦋 Sub::Quote 💖

🌸 NAME 🌸

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

💜 SUBROUTINES 💜

🧚 quote_sub

⭐ options

🍓 unquote_sub

🌸 quoted_from_sub

🦋 inlinify

🎀 quotify

🧚 capture_unroll

👑 qsub

⭐ sanitize_identifier

🔥 ENVIRONMENT 🔥

🧚 SUB_QUOTE_DEBUG

💀 CAVEATS 💀

😭 return

🙈 pragmas

💖 SUPPORT 💖

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

🌈 CONTRIBUTORS 🌈

🎀 COPYRIGHT 🎀

🌸 LICENSE 🌸

🧚 `quote_sub`

🍓 `unquote_sub`

🌸 `quoted_from_sub`

🦋 `inlinify`

🎀 `quotify`

🧚 `capture_unroll`

👑 `qsub`

⭐ `sanitize_identifier`

🧚 `SUB_QUOTE_DEBUG`