NAME

IPC::Lite - Share variables between processes

SYNOPSIS

Simple example creates package global shared variables named "count" and "stack".

use IPC::Lite qw($count, @stack);

Example of a shared variable "temp", with a 5 second timeout. Uses 'globaltemp-v1' as the program key, so other programs with this key will also be able to access $temp.

use IPC::Lite Key=>'globaltemp-v1', Timeout=>5, qw($temp);

$temp = $ARGV[0] if $ARGV[0];

print "temp is: $temp\n";

This example shows the power of using this module for IPC:

 use IPC::Lite qw($c);
 $c = undef;

 my $pid = fork;

 if ($pid) {
        wait;
	print "Child told me $c\n";
 } else {
	$c = "hello!";
 }

METHODS

use IPC::Lite [opt1=>value1[, opt2=>value2 ...],] qw(var1[ var2]...);

Possible options are:

        Key=>NAME - Unique name of your data store, if not set then one is created for you
	Timeout=>VALUE - Specifies timeout in seconds or in days if "d[ays]" is appended to the VALUE
	Ttl=>VALUE - Alias for timeout
	Path=>PATH - Path to the data store used.  IPC will fail if the path cannot be written to

Option names are case insensitive.

If no "vars" are specified, the options are saved as package-level defaults.

If "vars" are specified, then the options are used for *those vars only*, and are not saved as defaults.

For example, this creates 2 package-global variables with different timeouts:

 use IPC::Lite Key=>'myuniquekey', 
	       Timeout=>5, qw($fleeting), 
	       Timeout=>'10d', qw($lasting);

tie $var, 'IPC::Lite', %options

Makes the variable shared as above, but the variable can be a proper lexical. Uses package defaults if any are set.

Same options described in "use" above, but must also chose one of these two required binding methods:

Sym=>SYMBOL - Name of the symbol tied to (valid for any variable)
Table=>NAME - Name of the table to store the variable in (valid ONLY for hash or array).

NOTE:

The "use" method above merely calls the "tie" method (here) with the Sym option set to the name of the symbol passed in. The caller's package is added to the symbol name for storage only if the caller's package is not "main". You shouldn't need to know this.

path()

Prints the path of the data store.

tied($var)->path();

db()

Returns the active database handle. Probably shouldn't use it to mess with internals, unless that's your intention.

tied($var)->db();

SEE ALSO

DBD::SQLite

AUTHOR

Erik Aronesty earonesty@cpan.org

LICENSE

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html or the included LICENSE file.