NAME Language::XS - Write XS code on the fly and load it dynamically. SYNOPSIS use Language::XS; DESCRIPTION This module allows C & XS-code creation "on-the-fly", i.e. while your script is running. Here is a very simple example: # create a Language::XS-object my $xs = new Language::XS cachedir => undef; # add plain C to the header $xs->hdr("#include "); # add a c function (not using xs syntax) $xs->cfun('printf ("I was called with %d arguments\n", items);'); # now compile and find the code-reference my $coderef = $xs->find; # Now call it $coderef->(1, "Zwei", 1/3); METHODS new attr => value, ... Creates a new Language::XS object. Known attributes are: id a unique id that woill be shared among all modules cachedir the common directory where shared objects should be cached. set to undef when you want to disable sharing (must be an absolute path) Default values will be supplied when necessary. Two common idioms are: $xs = new Language::XS; # caching enabled $xs = new Language::XS cachedir => undef; # caching disabled cached Returns true when as shared object with the given id already exists. This obviously only makes sense when you gave the module a unique id. hdr sourcecode, [id] Add "sourcecode" to the header portion. Similar to the header portion of an XS module, you can insert any valid C-code here. Most often you'd add some include directives, though. "id" can be used to identify this portion (for error messages). cfun functionbody, [id], [prototype] Adds a XS function whose body is given in "functionbody". Unlike XS, you have to do argument processing (i.e. fiddling with ST(0)) yourself. "id" specifies the function name (for "find()" or error messages), and can be omitted (which results in a default name). "prototype" is an optional string that specifies the perl protoype. Remember that only the parser will evaluate prototypes. xsfun xs-source Similar to "cfun", but is able to parse normal XS syntax (most of it, that is). Pity that I haven't yet implemented this function, since that would require serious recoding of "xsubpp". uselib lib... Link against all the libraries given as arguments. The libraries should be specified as strings of the form "-llibrary". Additional search paths can be given using "-L/path/to/libs". See ExtUtils::Liblist. incpath path... Add additional include paths. These paths are prepended to the other include paths. gen Create the shared object file. This method is called automatically by "load" and even by "find". This function returns a truth status and fills the messages attribute (see "messages") with any compiler/linker warnings or errors. messages Returns the compiler messages (created & updated by "gen"). load Tries to load the shared object, generating it if necessary. Returns a truth status. find [id] Find the function (either xs or c) with id "id" and return a code-ref to it. If "id" is omitted, the default function (see "cfun") is returned instead. If no shared object is loaded, calls "load". BUGS/PROBLEMS Requires a C compiler (or even worse: the same C compiler perl was compiled with). Does (most probably) not work on many os's, especially non-unix ones. You cannot yet use normal XS syntax. Line number handling could be better. AUTHOR Marc Lehmann . SEE ALSO perl(1).