Exacct::Object(3PERL)					      Perl Library Functions					     Exacct::Object(3PERL)

NAME

       Exacct::Object - exacct object manipulation

SYNOPSIS

       use Sun::Solaris::Exacct::Object qw(:ALL);
       print($ea_obj->value(), "
");

DESCRIPTION

       This  module  is used as a parent of the two possible types of Perl exacct objects: Items and Groups. An Item is either a single data value
       such as the number of seconds of user CPU time consumed by a process, an embedded Perl exacct object, or a block of raw data.  A  Group	is
       an  ordered collection of Perl exacct Items such as all of the resource usage values for a particular process or task. If Groups need to be
       nested within each other, the inner Groups can be stored as embedded Perl exacct objects inside the enclosing Group.

       This module contains methods that are common to both Perl exacct Items and Groups. The attributes of Sun::Solaris::Exacct::Object  and  all
       classes	derived  from  it  are	read-only  after  initial  creation with new(). This behavior prevents the inadvertent modification of the
       attributes that could produce inconsistent catalog tags and data values. The only exception is the array used to store the Items  inside  a
       Group object, which can be modified using the normal Perl array operators. See the value() method below.

   Constants
       EO_ERROR, EO_NONE, EO_ITEM, and EO_GROUP.

   Functions
       None.

   Class methods
       dump($object, $filehandle)

	   This  method  dumps	formatted text representation of a Perl exacct object to the supplied file handle. If no file handle is specified,
	   the text representation is dumped to STDOUT. See EXAMPLES below for sample output.

   Object methods
       type()

	   This method returns the type field of the Perl exacct object. The value of the type field is returned as a  dual-typed  scalar  and	is
	   either EO_ITEM, EO_GROUP, or EO_NONE.

       catalog()

	   This method returns the catalog field of the Perl exacct object. The value is returned as a Sun::Solaris::Exacct::Catalog object.

       match_catalog($catalog)

	   This  method  matches the passed catalog tag against the object. True is returned of a match occurs.  Otherwise false is returned. This
	   method has the same behavior as the underlying ea_match_object_catalog(3EXACCT) function.

       value()

	   This method returns the value of the Perl exacct object. In the case of an Item, this object will normally be a Perl scalar,  either  a
	   number  or  string. For raw Items, the buffer contained inside the object is returned as a Perl string that can be manipulated with the
	   Perl unpack() function. If the Item contains either a nested Item or a nested Group, the enclosed Item is returned as a reference to an
	   object of the appropriate subtype of the Sun::Solaris::Exacct::Object class.

	   For	Group objects, if value() is called in a scalar context, the return value is a reference to the underlying array used to store the
	   component Items of the Group. Since this array can be manipulated with the normal Perl array indexing syntax and array  operators,  the
	   objects  inside the Group can be manipulated. All objects in the array must be derived from the Sun::Solaris::Exacct::Object class. Any
	   attempt to insert something else into the array will generate a fatal runtime error that can be caught with an eval { } block.

	   If value() is called in a list context for a Group object, it returns a list of all the objects in the Group. Unlike the  array  refer-
	   ence  returned in a scalar context, this list cannot be manipulated to add or delete Items from a Group. This mechanism is considerably
	   faster than the array mechanism described above and is the preferred mechanism if a Group is being examined in a read-only manner.

   Exports
       By default nothing is exported from this module. The following tags can be used to selectively import constants and  functions  defined	in
       this module:

       :CONSTANTS      EO_ERROR, EO_NONE, EO_ITEM, and EO_GROUP

       :ALL	       :CONSTANTS

EXAMPLES

       Example 1: Output of the dump() method for a Perl exacct Group object.

       The following is an example of output of the dump() method for a Perl exacct Group object.

       GROUP
	 Catalog = EXT_GROUP|EXC_DEFAULT|EXD_GROUP_PROC_PARTIAL
	 ITEM
	   Catalog = EXT_UINT32|EXC_DEFAULT|EXD_PROC_PID
	   Value = 3
	 ITEM
	   Catalog = EXT_UINT32|EXC_DEFAULT|EXD_PROC_UID
	   Value = 0
	 ITEM
	   Catalog = EXT_UINT32|EXC_DEFAULT|EXD_PROC_GID
	   Value = 0
	 ITEM
	   Catalog = EXT_UINT32|EXC_DEFAULT|EXD_PROC_PROJID
	   Value = 0
	 ITEM
	   Catalog = EXT_UINT32|EXC_DEFAULT|EXD_PROC_TASKID
	   Value = 0
	 ITEM
	   Catalog = EXT_STRING|EXC_DEFAULT|EXD_PROC_COMMAND
	   Value = fsflush
       ENDGROUP

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWpl5u			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Evolving			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       ea_match_object_catalog(3EXACCT),     Exacct(3PERL),	Exacct::Catalog(3PERL),     Exacct::File(3PERL),     Exacct::Object::Group(3PERL),
       Exacct::Object::Item(3PERL), libexacct(3LIB), attributes(5)

SunOS 5.10							    1 Dec 2002						     Exacct::Object(3PERL)