IO::FDSaver - Save file descriptors from Perl’s garbage collection.
my $saver = IO::FDSaver->new();
my $fd_from_xsub = 5;
# $fh can be garbage-collected, but Perl will never close FD 5.
my $fh = $saver->get_fh( $fd_from_xsub );
Perl’s ability to create a filehandle from a given file descriptor
is critical for advanced IPC functionality like accepting a file descriptor
across an exec() or via UNIX socket (i.e., SCM_RIGHTS).
It’s also useful when interfacing with C libraries (i.e., via XSUBs), but in this context there’s a catch: Perl expects to “own” all of its file handles’ file descriptors. So if Perl garbage-collects its last file handle that refers to a given file descriptor, Perl will close that file descriptor. Thus, your C code—which has no idea there’s this Perl thing calling into it—will suddenly start getting EBADF when trying to use its file descriptors. These errors can be confusing and time-consuming to fix.
The present module solves this problem by retaining an index of file descriptors and Perl file handles. As long as a given instance of this class survives, Perl will never auto-close the file descriptors given to that object because there will always remain at least one file handle that refers to each file descriptor.
(NB: File descriptors not given to such an object will behave as usual.)
Instantiates this class.
This module’s “workhorse” method: takes in a file descriptor and returns a file handle for it.
The returned filehandle will be opened read/write—even if the underlying file descriptor is read-only or write-only. The caller is expected to discipline itself not to misuse the returned filehandle.
(There might be virtue in allowing a mode to pass to the underlying open();
file a feature request if you’d like that.)
Copyright 2021 Gasper Software Consulting
This library is licensed under the same license as Perl.