• NAME
• SYNOPSIS
• DESCRIPTION
• HISTORY

NAME

strict - Perl pragma to restrict unsafe constructs

SYNOPSIS

    use strict;

    use strict "vars";
    use strict "refs";
    use strict "subs";

    use strict "hashpairs";

    use strict;
    no strict "vars";

DESCRIPTION

The strict pragma disables certain Perl expressions that could behave unexpectedly or are difficult to debug, turning them into errors. The effect of this pragma is limited to the current file or scope block.

If no import list is supplied, all possible restrictions are assumed. (This is the safest mode to operate in, but is sometimes too strict for casual programming.) Currently, there are four possible things to be strict about: "subs", "vars", "refs" and "hashpairs".

strict refs

This generates a runtime error if you use symbolic references (see perlref).

    use strict 'refs';
    $ref = \$foo;
    print $$ref;        # ok
    $ref = "foo";
    print $$ref;        # runtime error; normally ok
    $file = "STDOUT";
    print $file "Hi!";  # error; note: no comma after $file

There is one exception to this rule:

    $bar = \&{'foo'};
    &$bar;

is allowed so that goto &$AUTOLOAD would not break under stricture.

strict vars

This generates a compile-time error if you access a variable that was neither explicitly declared (using any of my, our, state, or use vars) nor fully qualified. (Because this is to avoid variable suicide problems and subtle dynamic scoping issues, a merely local variable isn't good enough.) See "my" in perlfunc, "our" in perlfunc, "state" in perlfunc, "local" in perlfunc, and vars.

    use strict 'vars';
    $X::foo = 1;         # ok, fully qualified
    my $foo = 10;        # ok, my() var
    local $baz = 9;      # blows up, $baz not declared before

    package Cinna;
    our $bar;                   # Declares $bar in current package
    $bar = 'HgS';               # ok, global declared via pragma

The local() generated a compile-time error because you just touched a global name without fully qualifying it.

Because of their special use by sort(), the variables $a and $b are exempted from this check.

strict subs

This disables the poetry optimization, generating a compile-time error if you try to use a bareword identifier that's not a subroutine, unless it is a simple identifier (no colons) and that it appears in curly braces or on the left hand side of the => symbol.

    use strict 'subs';
    $SIG{PIPE} = Plumber;   # blows up
    $SIG{PIPE} = "Plumber"; # fine: quoted string is always ok
    $SIG{PIPE} = \&Plumber; # preferred form

strict hashpairs

This allows only empty lists or pairs, i.e. a list with two entries to be assigned to an hash entry, or if used in list assignment only pairs of elements.

   use strict 'hashpairs';
   %h = ();             # ok
   %h = (a=>1);         # ok
   %h = (0..3);         # ok
   %h = (0..2);         # error
   %h = map {0,1,2} (0..2); # error
   %h = map {0..3}  (0..2); # error

See "Pragmatic Modules" in perlmodlib.

HISTORY

strict 'subs', with Perl 5.6.1, erroneously permitted to use an unquoted compound identifier (e.g. Foo::Bar) as a hash key (before => or inside curlies), but without forcing it always to a literal string.

Starting with Perl 5.8.1 strict is strict about its restrictions: if unknown restrictions are used, the strict pragma will abort with

    Unknown 'strict' tag(s) '...'

As of version 1.04 (Perl 5.10), strict verifies that it is used as "strict" to avoid the dreaded Strict trap on case insensitive file systems.

Starting with cperl (based on Perl 5.22) strict is now a builtin module, implemented as XS functions which are always available.

With version 1.12c (cperl 5.27.0 only) 'hashpairs' was added to prevent from accidental uneven hash assignment or silently adding too many elements.

use strict 'names' was initially planned for cperl to prevent from invalid names to be added, but cperl-5.26 started disallowing names with embedded NUL characters which were added with perl-5.16, so it's not that urgent anymore.