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

NAME

       IO::File - supply object methods for filehandles

SYNOPSIS

	   use IO::File;

	   $fh = new IO::File;
	   if ($fh->open("< file")) {
	       print <$fh>;
	       $fh->close;
	   }

	   $fh = new IO::File "> file";
	   if (defined $fh) {
	       print $fh "bar
";
	       $fh->close;
	   }

	   $fh = new IO::File "file", "r";
	   if (defined $fh) {
	       print <$fh>;
	       undef $fh;	# automatically closes the file
	   }

	   $fh = new IO::File "file", O_WRONLY|O_APPEND;
	   if (defined $fh) {
	       print $fh "corge
";

	       $pos = $fh->getpos;
	       $fh->setpos($pos);

	       undef $fh;	# automatically closes the file
	   }

	   autoflush STDOUT 1;

DESCRIPTION

       "IO::File" inherits from "IO::Handle" and "IO::Seekable". It extends these classes with methods that are specific to file handles.

CONSTRUCTOR

       new ( FILENAME [,MODE [,PERMS]] )
	   Creates an "IO::File".  If it receives any parameters, they are passed to the method "open"; if the open fails, the object is
	   destroyed.  Otherwise, it is returned to the caller.

       new_tmpfile
	   Creates an "IO::File" opened for read/write on a newly created temporary file.  On systems where this is possible, the temporary file
	   is anonymous (i.e. it is unlinked after creation, but held open).  If the temporary file cannot be created or opened, the "IO::File"
	   object is destroyed.  Otherwise, it is returned to the caller.

METHODS

       open( FILENAME [,MODE [,PERMS]] )
	   "open" accepts one, two or three parameters.  With one parameter, it is just a front end for the built-in "open" function.  With two or
	   three parameters, the first parameter is a filename that may include whitespace or other special characters, and the second parameter
	   is the open mode, optionally followed by a file permission value.

	   If "IO::File::open" receives a Perl mode string (">", "+<", etc.)  or an ANSI C fopen() mode string ("w", "r+", etc.), it uses the
	   basic Perl "open" operator (but protects any special characters).

	   If "IO::File::open" is given a numeric mode, it passes that mode and the optional permissions value to the Perl "sysopen" operator.
	   The permissions default to 0666.

	   For convenience, "IO::File" exports the O_XXX constants from the Fcntl module, if this module is available.

SEE ALSO

       perlfunc, "I/O Operators" in perlop, IO::Handle IO::Seekable

HISTORY

       Derived from FileHandle.pm by Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>.

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