Operators

The canonical list of operator names is the array PL_op_name, which is initialized in opcode.h. On my Solaris system with Perl version 5.6.0 installed, the file, relative to the Perl executable, is ../lib/perl5/5.6.0/sun4-solaris/CORE/opcode.h.

Operator tags

The Opcode module defines several tags and the user can define others using the define_optag function. Tags defined by Opcode are:

:base_core

Large list of core operators. See Opcode module documentation for list.

:base_mem

From the documentation:

``Not included in :base_core because they can easily be used to implement a resource attack (e.g., consume all available memory).''

    concat repeat join range
    anonlist anonhash

:base_loop

From the documentation:

``Not included in :base_core because they can easily be used to implement a resource attack (e.g., consume all available CPU time).''

    grepstart grepwhile
    mapstart mapwhile
    enteriter iter
    enterloop leaveloop unstack
    last next redo
    goto

:base_io

From the documentation:

``Enable filehandle (rather than filename) based input and output. These are safe on the assumption that only pre-existing filehandles are available for use. To create new filehandles other ops such as open would need to be enabled.''

    readline rcatline getc read
    formline enterwrite leavewrite
    print sysread syswrite send recv
    eof tell seek sysseek
    readdir telldir seekdir rewinddir

:base_orig

From the documentation:

``Still waiting to be considered''

    gvsv gv gelem
    padsv padav padhv padany
    rv2gv refgen srefgen ref
    bless -- could be used to change ownership of objects (reblessing)
    pushre regcmaybe regcreset regcomp subst substcont
    sprintf prtf -- can core dump
    crypt
    tie untie
    dbmopen dbmclose
    sselect select
    pipe_op sockpair
    getppid getpgrp setpgrp getpriority setpriority localtime gmtime
    entertry leavetry -- can be used to 'hide' fatal errors

:base_thread

Included:

    lock threadsv

:default

From the documentation:

``A handy tag name for a reasonable default set of ops.''

    :base_core :base_mem :base_loop :base_io :base_orig :base_thread

:filesys_read

Included:

    stat lstat readlink
    ftatime ftblk ftchr ftctime ftdir fteexec fteowned fteread
    ftewrite ftfile ftis ftlink ftmtime ftpipe ftrexec ftrowned
    ftrread ftsgid ftsize ftsock ftsuid fttty ftzero ftrwrite ftsvtx
    fttext ftbinary
    fileno

:sys_db

Included:

    ghbyname ghbyaddr ghostent shostent ehostent      -- hosts
    gnbyname gnbyaddr gnetent snetent enetent         -- networks
    gpbyname gpbynumber gprotoent sprotoent eprotoent -- protocols
    gsbyname gsbyport gservent sservent eservent      -- services
    gpwnam gpwuid gpwent spwent epwent getlogin       -- users
    ggrnam ggrgid ggrent sgrent egrent                -- groups

:browse

From the documentation:

``A handy tag name for a reasonable default set of ops beyond the :default optag.''

``The intent being that scripts can access more (possibly sensitive) information about your system but not be able to change it.''

    :default :filesys_read :sys_db

Others

    :base_math 
    :filesys_open :filesys_write 
    :subprocess :ownprocess 
    :others :still_to_be_decided :dangerous

Negation

Operator names or tags can be negated by prefixing a !. This means to remove the operators from the set.

Opcode name <-> Opcode description

As you may have noticed, some of the opcode names are a bit cryptic. Luckily, you can get a description of any opcode name using the Opcode module. Example:

> perl -mOpcode -e'print Opcode::opdesc(``enteriter''), ``\n'''

foreach loop entry

You may also want to get the name for a particular description. This is only slightly more difficult. First, you need to get the description from opcode.h or take a guess as to a pattern in the name or description. Then, use Opcode::opdump to output all matching name/descriptions. Examples:

> perl -mOpcode -e'Opcode::opdump (``for'')'

      formline  formline
     enteriter  foreach loop entry
          iter  foreach loop iterator
          fork  fork

> perl -mOpcode -e'Opcode::opdump (``for[^mk]'')'

     enteriter  foreach loop entry
          iter  foreach loop iterator

> perl -mOpcode -e'Opcode::opdump (``enteriter'')'

     enteriter  foreach loop entry

Opcode tag -> Opcode names

In case you don't have or don't believe the Opcode documentation and you want to get a list of the opcode names for a tag, you can use a combination of the Opcode::opset_to_ops and Opcode::opset functions. Example:

> perl -mOpcode -e'print ``$_\n'' foreach (Opcode::opset_to_ops( Opcode::opset( qw(:base_thread) )) )'

lock

threadsv