. We knew exactly what code would be run, and assumed we could avoid variable collisions and outrageous symbol table growth. Let's say your application is a server that will occasionally run Perl code from some arbitrary file. Your server has no way of knowing what code it's going to run. Very dangerous. If the file is pulled in by C, compiled into a newly constructed interpreter, and subsequently cleaned out with C afterwards, you're shielded from most namespace troubles. One way to avoid namespace collisions in this scenario is to translate the filename into a guaranteed-unique package name, and then compile the code into that package using L. In the example below, each file will only be compiled once. Or, the application might choose to clean out the symbol table associated with the file after it's no longer needed. Using L, We'll call the subroutine C which lives in the file C and pass the filename and boolean cleanup/cache flag as arguments. Note that the process will continue to grow for each file that it uses. In addition, there might be Ced subroutines and other conditions that cause Perl's symbol table to grow. You might want to add some logic that keeps track of the process size, or restarts itself after a certain number of requests, to ensure that memory consumption is minimized. You'll also want to scope your variables with L whenever possible. package Embed::Persistent; #persistent.pl use strict; our %Cache; use Symbol qw(delete_package); sub valid_package_name { my($string) = @_; $string =~ s/([^A-Za-z0-9\/])/sprintf("_%2x",unpack("C",$1))/eg; # second pass only for words starting with a digit $string =~ s|/(\d)|sprintf("/_%2x",unpack("C",$1))|eg; # Dress it up as a real package name $string =~ s|/|::|g; return "Embed" . $string; } sub eval_file { my($filename, $delete) = @_; my $package = valid_package_name($filename); my $mtime = -M $filename; if(defined $Cache{$package}{mtime} && $Cache{$package}{mtime} <= $mtime) { # we have compiled this subroutine already, # it has not been updated on disk, nothing left to do print STDERR "already compiled $package->handler\n"; } else { local *FH; open FH, $filename or die "open '$filename' $!"; local($/) = undef; my $sub = ; close FH; #wrap the code into a subroutine inside our unique package my $eval = qq{package $package; sub handler { $sub; }}; { # hide our variables within this block my($filename,$mtime,$package,$sub); eval $eval; } die $@ if $@; #cache it unless we're cleaning out each time $Cache{$package}{mtime} = $mtime unless $delete; } eval {$package->handler;}; die $@ if $@; delete_package($package) if $delete; #take a look if you want #print Devel::Symdump->rnew($package)->as_string, $/; } 1; __END__ /* persistent.c */ #include #include /* 1 = clean out filename's symbol table after each request, 0 = don't */ #ifndef DO_CLEAN #define DO_CLEAN 0 #endif #define BUFFER_SIZE 1024 static PerlInterpreter *my_perl = NULL; int main(int argc, char **argv, char **env) { char *embedding[] = { "", "persistent.pl" }; char *args[] = { "", DO_CLEAN, NULL }; char filename[BUFFER_SIZE]; int exitstatus = 0; PERL_SYS_INIT3(&argc,&argv,&env); if((my_perl = perl_alloc()) == NULL) { fprintf(stderr, "no memory!"); exit(1); } perl_construct(my_perl); PL_origalen = 1; /* don't let $0 assignment update the proctitle or embedding[0] */ exitstatus = perl_parse(my_perl, NULL, 2, embedding, NULL); PL_exit_flags |= PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END; if(!exitstatus) { exitstatus = perl_run(my_perl); while(printf("Enter file name: ") && fgets(filename, BUFFER_SIZE, stdin)) { filename[strlen(filename)-1] = '\0'; /* strip \n */ /* call the subroutine, passing it the filename as an argument */ args[0] = filename; call_argv("Embed::Persistent::eval_file", G_DISCARD | G_EVAL, args); /* check $@ */ if(SvTRUE(ERRSV)) fprintf(stderr, "eval error: %s\n", SvPV_nolen(ERRSV)); } } PL_perl_destruct_level = 0; perl_destruct(my_perl); perl_free(my_perl); PERL_SYS_TERM(); exit(exitstatus); } Now compile: % cc -o persistent persistent.c `perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ccopts -e ldopts` Here's an example script file: #test.pl my $string = "hello"; foo($string); sub foo { print "foo says: @_\n"; } Now run: % persistent Enter file name: test.pl foo says: hello Enter file name: test.pl already compiled Embed::test_2epl->handler foo says: hello Enter file name: ^C =head2 Execution of END blocks Traditionally END blocks have been executed at the end of the perl_run. This causes problems for applications that never call perl_run. Since perl 5.7.2 you can specify C to get the new behaviour. This also enables the running of END blocks if the perl_parse fails and C will return the exit value. =head2 $0 assignments When a perl script assigns a value to $0 then the perl runtime will try to make this value show up as the program name reported by "ps" by updating the memory pointed to by the argv passed to perl_parse() and also calling API functions like setproctitle() where available. This behaviour might not be appropriate when embedding perl and can be disabled by assigning the value C<1> to the variable C before perl_parse() is called. The F example above is for instance likely to segfault when $0 is assigned to if the C assignment is removed. This because perl will try to write to the read only memory of the C strings. =head2 Maintaining multiple interpreter instances Some rare applications will need to create more than one interpreter during a session. Such an application might sporadically decide to release any resources associated with the interpreter. The program must take care to ensure that this takes place I the next interpreter is constructed. By default, when perl is not built with any special options, the global variable C is set to C<0>, since extra cleaning isn't usually needed when a program only ever creates a single interpreter in its entire lifetime. Setting C to C<1> makes everything squeaky clean: while(1) { ... /* reset global variables here with PL_perl_destruct_level = 1 */ PL_perl_destruct_level = 1; perl_construct(my_perl); ... /* clean and reset _everything_ during perl_destruct */ PL_perl_destruct_level = 1; perl_destruct(my_perl); perl_free(my_perl); ... /* let's go do it again! */ } When I is called, the interpreter's syntax parse tree and symbol tables are cleaned up, and global variables are reset. The second assignment to C is needed because perl_construct resets it to C<0>. Now suppose we have more than one interpreter instance running at the same time. This is feasible, but only if you used the Configure option C<-Dusemultiplicity> or the options C<-Dusethreads -Duseithreads> when building perl. By default, enabling one of these Configure options sets the per-interpreter global variable C to C<1>, so that thorough cleaning is automatic and interpreter variables are initialized correctly. Even if you don't intend to run two or more interpreters at the same time, but to run them sequentially, like in the above example, it is recommended to build perl with the C<-Dusemultiplicity> option otherwise some interpreter variables may not be initialized correctly between consecutive runs and your application may crash. See also L. Using C<-Dusethreads -Duseithreads> rather than C<-Dusemultiplicity> is more appropriate if you intend to run multiple interpreters concurrently in different threads, because it enables support for linking in the thread libraries of your system with the interpreter. Let's give it a try: #include #include /* we're going to embed two interpreters */ /* we're going to embed two interpreters */ #define SAY_HELLO "-e", "print qq(Hi, I'm $^X\n)" int main(int argc, char **argv, char **env) { PerlInterpreter *one_perl, *two_perl; char *one_args[] = { "one_perl", SAY_HELLO }; char *two_args[] = { "two_perl", SAY_HELLO }; PERL_SYS_INIT3(&argc,&argv,&env); one_perl = perl_alloc(); two_perl = perl_alloc(); PERL_SET_CONTEXT(one_perl); perl_construct(one_perl); PERL_SET_CONTEXT(two_perl); perl_construct(two_perl); PERL_SET_CONTEXT(one_perl); perl_parse(one_perl, NULL, 3, one_args, (char **)NULL); PERL_SET_CONTEXT(two_perl); perl_parse(two_perl, NULL, 3, two_args, (char **)NULL); PERL_SET_CONTEXT(one_perl); perl_run(one_perl); PERL_SET_CONTEXT(two_perl); perl_run(two_perl); PERL_SET_CONTEXT(one_perl); perl_destruct(one_perl); PERL_SET_CONTEXT(two_perl); perl_destruct(two_perl); PERL_SET_CONTEXT(one_perl); perl_free(one_perl); PERL_SET_CONTEXT(two_perl); perl_free(two_perl); PERL_SYS_TERM(); } Note the calls to PERL_SET_CONTEXT(). These are necessary to initialize the global state that tracks which interpreter is the "current" one on the particular process or thread that may be running it. It should always be used if you have more than one interpreter and are making perl API calls on both interpreters in an interleaved fashion. PERL_SET_CONTEXT(interp) should also be called whenever C is used by a thread that did not create it (using either perl_alloc(), or the more esoteric perl_clone()). Compile as usual: % cc -o multiplicity multiplicity.c `perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ccopts -e ldopts` Run it, Run it: % multiplicity Hi, I'm one_perl Hi, I'm two_perl =head2 Using Perl modules, which themselves use C libraries, from your C program If you've played with the examples above and tried to embed a script that Is a Perl module (such as I) which itself uses a C or C++ library, this probably happened: Can't load module Socket, dynamic loading not available in this perl. (You may need to build a new perl executable which either supports dynamic loading or has the Socket module statically linked into it.) What's wrong? Your interpreter doesn't know how to communicate with these extensions on its own. A little glue will help. Up until now you've been calling I, handing it NULL for the second argument: perl_parse(my_perl, NULL, argc, my_argv, NULL); That's where the glue code can be inserted to create the initial contact between Perl and linked C/C++ routines. Let's take a look some pieces of I to see how Perl does this: static void xs_init (pTHX); EXTERN_C void boot_DynaLoader (pTHX_ CV* cv); EXTERN_C void boot_Socket (pTHX_ CV* cv); EXTERN_C void xs_init(pTHX) { char *file = __FILE__; /* DynaLoader is a special case */ newXS("DynaLoader::boot_DynaLoader", boot_DynaLoader, file); newXS("Socket::bootstrap", boot_Socket, file); } Simply put: for each extension linked with your Perl executable (determined during its initial configuration on your computer or when adding a new extension), a Perl subroutine is created to incorporate the extension's routines. Normally, that subroutine is named I and is invoked when you say I. In turn, this hooks into an XSUB, I, which creates a Perl counterpart for each of the extension's XSUBs. Don't worry about this part; leave that to the I and extension authors. If your extension is dynamically loaded, DynaLoader creates I for you on the fly. In fact, if you have a working DynaLoader then there is rarely any need to link in any other extensions statically. Once you have this code, slap it into the second argument of I: perl_parse(my_perl, xs_init, argc, my_argv, NULL); Then compile: % cc -o interp interp.c `perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ccopts -e ldopts` % interp use Socket; use SomeDynamicallyLoadedModule; print "Now I can use extensions!\n"' B can also automate writing the I glue code. % perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e xsinit -- -o perlxsi.c % cc -c perlxsi.c `perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ccopts` % cc -c interp.c `perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ccopts` % cc -o interp perlxsi.o interp.o `perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ldopts` Consult L, L, and L for more details. =head1 Embedding Perl under Win32 In general, all of the source code shown here should work unmodified under Windows. However, there are some caveats about the command-line examples shown. For starters, backticks won't work under the Win32 native command shell. The ExtUtils::Embed kit on CPAN ships with a script called B, which generates a simple makefile to build a program from a single C source file. It can be used like this: C:\ExtUtils-Embed\eg> perl genmake interp.c C:\ExtUtils-Embed\eg> nmake C:\ExtUtils-Embed\eg> interp -e "print qq{I'm embedded in Win32!\n}" You may wish to use a more robust environment such as the Microsoft Developer Studio. In this case, run this to generate perlxsi.c: perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e xsinit Create a new project and Insert -> Files into Project: perlxsi.c, perl.lib, and your own source files, e.g. interp.c. Typically you'll find perl.lib in B, if not, you should see the B directory relative to C. The studio will also need this path so it knows where to find Perl include files. This path can be added via the Tools -> Options -> Directories menu. Finally, select Build -> Build interp.exe and you're ready to go. =head1 Hiding Perl_ If you completely hide the short forms forms of the Perl public API, add -DPERL_NO_SHORT_NAMES to the compilation flags. This means that for example instead of writing warn("%d bottles of beer on the wall", bottlecount); you will have to write the explicit full form Perl_warn(aTHX_ "%d bottles of beer on the wall", bottlecount); (See L.> ) Hiding the short forms is very useful for avoiding all sorts of nasty (C preprocessor or otherwise) conflicts with other software packages (Perl defines about 2400 APIs with these short names, take or leave few hundred, so there certainly is room for conflict.) =head1 MORAL You can sometimes I in C, but you can always I in Perl. Because you can use each from the other, combine them as you wish. =head1 AUTHOR Jon Orwant > and Doug MacEachern >, with small contributions from Tim Bunce, Tom Christiansen, Guy Decoux, Hallvard Furuseth, Dov Grobgeld, and Ilya Zakharevich. Doug MacEachern has an article on embedding in Volume 1, Issue 4 of The Perl Journal ( http://www.tpj.com/ ). Doug is also the developer of the most widely-used Perl embedding: the mod_perl system (perl.apache.org), which embeds Perl in the Apache web server. Oracle, Binary Evolution, ActiveState, and Ben Sugars's nsapi_perl have used this model for Oracle, Netscape and Internet Information Server Perl plugins. =head1 COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 Doug MacEachern and Jon Orwant. All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this documentation provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this documentation under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that they are marked clearly as modified versions, that the authors' names and title are unchanged (though subtitles and additional authors' names may be added), and that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this documentation into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.