IO::Select(3pm) 					 Perl Programmers Reference Guide					   IO::Select(3pm)

NAME

       IO::Select - OO interface to the select system call

SYNOPSIS

	   use IO::Select;

	   $s = IO::Select->new();

	   $s->add(*STDIN);
	   $s->add($some_handle);

	   @ready = $s->can_read($timeout);

	   @ready = IO::Select->new(@handles)->read(0);

DESCRIPTION

       The "IO::Select" package implements an object approach to the system "select" function call. It allows the user to see what IO handles, see
       IO::Handle, are ready for reading, writing or have an error condition pending.

CONSTRUCTOR

       new ( [ HANDLES ] )
	   The constructor creates a new object and optionally initialises it with a set of handles.

METHODS

       add ( HANDLES )
	   Add the list of handles to the "IO::Select" object. It is these values that will be returned when an event occurs. "IO::Select" keeps
	   these values in a cache which is indexed by the "fileno" of the handle, so if more than one handle with the same "fileno" is specified
	   then only the last one is cached.

	   Each handle can be an "IO::Handle" object, an integer or an array reference where the first element is an "IO::Handle" or an integer.

       remove ( HANDLES )
	   Remove all the given handles from the object. This method also works by the "fileno" of the handles. So the exact handles that were
	   added need not be passed, just handles that have an equivalent "fileno"

       exists ( HANDLE )
	   Returns a true value (actually the handle itself) if it is present.	Returns undef otherwise.

       handles
	   Return an array of all registered handles.

       can_read ( [ TIMEOUT ] )
	   Return an array of handles that are ready for reading. "TIMEOUT" is the maximum amount of time to wait before returning an empty list,
	   in seconds, possibly fractional. If "TIMEOUT" is not given and any handles are registered then the call will block.

       can_write ( [ TIMEOUT ] )
	   Same as "can_read" except check for handles that can be written to.

       has_exception ( [ TIMEOUT ] )
	   Same as "can_read" except check for handles that have an exception condition, for example pending out-of-band data.

       count ()
	   Returns the number of handles that the object will check for when one of the "can_" methods is called or the object is passed to the
	   "select" static method.

       bits()
	   Return the bit string suitable as argument to the core select() call.

       select ( READ, WRITE, ERROR [, TIMEOUT ] )
	   "select" is a static method, that is you call it with the package name like "new". "READ", "WRITE" and "ERROR" are either "undef" or
	   "IO::Select" objects. "TIMEOUT" is optional and has the same effect as for the core select call.

	   The result will be an array of 3 elements, each a reference to an array which will hold the handles that are ready for reading, writing
	   and have error conditions respectively. Upon error an empty array is returned.

EXAMPLE

       Here is a short example which shows how "IO::Select" could be used to write a server which communicates with several sockets while also
       listening for more connections on a listen socket

	   use IO::Select;
	   use IO::Socket;

	   $lsn = new IO::Socket::INET(Listen => 1, LocalPort => 8080);
	   $sel = new IO::Select( $lsn );

	   while(@ready = $sel->can_read) {
	       foreach $fh (@ready) {
		   if($fh == $lsn) {
		       # Create a new socket
		       $new = $lsn->accept;
		       $sel->add($new);
		   }
		   else {
		       # Process socket

		       # Maybe we have finished with the socket
		       $sel->remove($fh);
		       $fh->close;
		   }
	       }
	   }

AUTHOR

       Graham Barr. Currently maintained by the Perl Porters.  Please report all bugs to <perl5-porters@perl.org>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 1997-8 Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>. All rights reserved.  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
       modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

perl v5.8.0							    2002-06-01							   IO::Select(3pm)