Symbol(3)

NNAAMMEE
       Symbol - manipulate Perl symbols and their names

SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
           use Symbol;

           $sym = gensym;
           open($sym, "filename");
           $_ = <$sym>;
           # etc.

           ungensym $sym;      # no effect

           print qualify("x"), "\n";              # "Test::x"
           print qualify("x", "FOO"), "\n"        # "FOO::x"
           print qualify("BAR::x"), "\n";         # "BAR::x"
           print qualify("BAR::x", "FOO"), "\n";  # "BAR::x"
           print qualify("STDOUT", "FOO"), "\n";  # "main::STDOUT" (global)
           print qualify(\*x), "\n";              # returns \*x
           print qualify(\*x, "FOO"), "\n";       # returns \*x

           use strict refs;
           print { qualify_to_ref $fh } "foo!\n";
           $ref = qualify_to_ref $name, $pkg;

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
       Symbol::gensym creates an anonymous glob and returns a
       reference to it.  Such a glob reference can be used as a
       file or directory handle.

       For backward compatibility with older implementations that
       didn't support anonymous globs, Symbol::ungensym is also
       provided.  But it doesn't do anything.

       Symbol::qualify turns unqualified symbol names into
       qualified variable names (e.g. "myvar" ->
       "MyPackage::myvar").  If it is given a second parameter,
       qualify uses it as the default package; otherwise, it uses
       the package of its caller.  Regardless, global variable
       names (e.g. "STDOUT", "ENV", "SIG") are always qualfied
       with "main::".

       Qualification applies only to symbol names (strings).
       References are left unchanged under the assumption that
       they are glob references, which are qualified by their
       nature.

       Symbol::qualify_to_ref is just like Symbol::qualify except
       that it returns a glob ref rather than a symbol name, so
       you can use the result even if use strict 'refs' is in
       effect.