I have a Perl script which uses a not-so-common module, and I want it to be usable without that module being installed, although with limited functionality. Is it possible?
I thought of something like this:
my $has_foobar;
if (has_module "foobar") {
<< use it >>
$has_foobar = true;
} else {
print STDERR "Warning: foobar not found. Not using it.\n";
$has_foobar = false;
}
You can use require to load modules at runtime, and eval to trap possible exceptions:
eval {
require Foobar;
Foobar->import();
};
if ($@) {
warn "Error including Foobar: $@";
}
See also perldoc use.
Consider the if pragma.
use if CONDITION, MODULE => ARGUMENTS;
I recommend employing Module::Load
so that the intention is made clear.
Edit: disregard the comments, Module::Load is in core.
Another approach is to use Class::MOP's load_class method. You can use it like:
Class::MOP::load_class( 'foobar', $some_options )
It throws an exception so you'll have to catch that. More info here.
Also, while this isn't necessarily on every system Class::MOP is awfully useful to have and with Moose becoming more prevalent every day it likely is on your system.