SYNOPSIS Say you want to create a require hook to prepend some code to the module source code that is loaded. In your hook source, in Require/HookChain/prepend.pm: package Require::HookChain::prepend; sub new { my ($class, $preamble) = @_; bless { preamble => $preamble }, $class; } sub Require::HookChain::prepend::INC { my ($self, $r) = @_; # safety, in case we are not called by Require::HookChain return () unless ref $r; my $src = $r->src; return unless defined $src; $src = "$self->{preamble};\n$src"; $r->src($src); } 1; In a code to use this hook: use Require::HookChain prepend => 'use strict'; use Foo::Bar; # Foo/Bar.pm will be loaded with added 'use strict;' at the start Install another hook, but put it at the end of @INC instead of at the beginning: use Require::HookChain -end => 1, append => 'some code'; DESCRIPTION This module lets you create chainable require hooks. As one already understands, Perl lets you put a coderef or object in @INC. In the case of object, its INC method will be called by Perl: package My::INCHandler; sub new { ... } sub My::INCHandler::INC { my ($self, $filename) = @_; ... } The method is passed itself then filename (which is what is passed to require()) and is expected to return nothing or a list of up to four values: a scalar reference containing source code, filehandle, reference to subroutine, optional state for subroutine (more information can be read from the perlfunc manpage). As soon as the first hook in @INC returns non-empty value then the search for source code is stopped. With Require::HookChain, you can put multiple hooks in @INC that all get executed. When use'd, Require::HookChain will install its own hook at the beginning of @INC which will search for source code in @INC as well as execute INC method of all the other hooks which are instances of Require::HookChain::* class. Instead of filename, the method is passed a Require::HookChain::r object ($r). The method can do things on $r, for example retrieve source code via $r->src or modify source code via $r->src($new_content). After the method returns, the next Require::HookChain::* hook is executed, and so on. The final source code will be retrieved from $r->src and returned for Perl. This lets one chainable hook munge the result of the previous chainable hook. To create your own chainable require hook, see example in "SYNOPSIS". First you create a module under the Require::HookChain::* namespace, then create a constructor as well as INC handler. Require::HookChain::r OBJECT Methods src Usage: $r->src( [ $new_value ] ) => str Get or set source code content. Will return undef if source code has not been found or set. SEE ALSO