Mail::SpamAssassin::Util(3)				User Contributed Perl Documentation			       Mail::SpamAssassin::Util(3)

NAME

       Mail::SpamAssassin::Util - utility functions

DESCRIPTION

       A general class for utility functions.  Please use this for functions that stand alone, without requiring a $self object, Portability
       functions especially.

       NOTE: The functions in this module are to be considered private.  Their API may change at any point, and it's expected that they'll only be
       used by other Mail::SpamAssassin modules. (TODO: we should probably revisit this if it's useful for plugin development.)

       NOTE: Utility functions should not be changing global variables such as $_, $1, $2, ... $/, etc. unless explicitly documented.  If these
       variables are in use by these functions, they should be localized.

       $module = first_available_module (@module_list)
	   Return the name of the first module that can be successfully loaded with "require" from the list.  Returns "undef" if none are
	   available.

	   This is used instead of "AnyDBM_File" as follows:

	     my $module = Mail::SpamAssassin::Util::first_available_module
				   (qw(DB_File GDBM_File NDBM_File SDBM_File));
	     tie %hash, $module, $path, [... args];

	   Note that "SDBM_File" is guaranteed to be present, since it comes with Perl.

       my ($filepath, $filehandle) = secure_tmpfile();
	   Generates a filename for a temporary file, opens it exclusively and securely, and returns a filehandle to the open file (opened
	   O_RDWR).

	   If it cannot open a file after 20 tries, it returns "undef".

       my ($dirpath) = secure_tmpdir();
	   Generates a directory for temporary files.  Creates it securely and returns the path to the directory.

	   If it cannot create a directory after 20 tries, it returns "undef".

perl v5.16.3							    2011-06-06					       Mail::SpamAssassin::Util(3)