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IPC::Cmd::Cached 0.01
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NAME

IPC::Cmd::Cached - Run expensive commands and cache their output

SYNOPSIS

use IPC::Cmd::Cached;

my $runner = IPC::Cmd::Cached->new();

          # takes a fair mount to run, but result gets cached
        my($success, $error_code, $full_buf, $stdout_buf, $stderr_buf) =
          $runner->run(command => "find /etc -type f -print");

          # Returns the same result much faster, because it's cached
        my($success, $error_code, $full_buf, $stdout_buf, $stderr_buf) =
          $runner->run_cached("find /etc -type f -print");

          # To make sure the cached entries don't expire, run this 
          # twice a day via a cronjob:
        $runner->run_all();

DESCRIPTION

"IPC::Cmd::Cached" uses "IPC::Cmd" to run arbitrary shell commands, but caches their results and finds them later.

It uses a "Cache::FileCache" object to store the output of commands it has successfully executed persistently on disk. Results are store under a key equal to the command line given to run the commands.

If a command's output doesn't change much over time and cached results are acceptable, "IPC::Cmd::Cached" saves time by reusing canned results instead of recalculating the same results over and over again.

"IPC::Cmd::Cached" works like the "Memoize" module, but instead of caching the output of functions, it caches the output of external scripts.

CAVEATS

A command's results are cached based on its full command line. This might not be desirable if the same command produces varying output over

time

        $ eg/run-cached date
        Mon Dec 17 00:01:00 PST 2007
        $ eg/run-cached -c date
        Mon Dec 17 00:01:00 PST 2007

Advanced use cases

The constructor accepts arguments to change the runner's internal

behavior

cache

        By default, this is set to a Cache::FileCache object in the default
        namespace with 24 hours of expiration time:

            my $runner = IPC::Cmd::Cached->new( 
              cache => Cache::FileCache->new({
                auto_purge_on_get  => 1,
                default_expires_in => 24*3600,
                namespace          => "IPC-Cmd-Cached",
              }),
            );

        If you need different characteristics, define your own cache object
        and hand it over to "new" as shown above. Take a look at the
        Cache::Cache documentation for details.

EXAMPLES

The distribution comes with two utility scripts, "run-cached" and "run-cached-all".

"run-cached" runs a command specified on its command line. With the -c option, it will fetch the cached entry instead.

"run-cached-all" runs all scripts in the cache to refresh their content.

Check the documentation that comes with these scripts for more details.

LEGALESE

Copyright 2007 by Mike Schilli, all rights reserved. This program is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHOR

2007, Mike Schilli <cpan@perlmeister.com>