what is purpose of 1; at end of scripts

[Danny]

I notice a lot of scripts that have a 1; at the bottom.
I am new to perl and trying to understand.

Usually at bottom of scripts that do something but do not print to a web
page or print this 1;

Thanks in advance

 

[Tad McClellan]

I notice a lot of scripts that have a 1; at the bottom.

It is not needed in programs, it is needed in libraries.

Is that where you saw them?

I am new to perl and trying to understand.

perldoc -f require


... The file must return true as the last statement
to indicate successful execution of any initialization
code, so it's customary to end such a file with "1;" unless
you're sure it'll return true otherwise. But it's better just
to put the "1;", in case you add more statements.

Usually at bottom of scripts that do something but do not print to a web
page or print this 1;

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Oh. You must be talking about something else then...

.... can't tell what else unless you show us the code you are asking about.

 

[Gregory Toomey]

I notice a lot of scripts that have a 1; at the bottom.
I am new to perl and trying to understand.

Usually at bottom of scripts that do something but do not print to a web
page or print this 1;

Thanks in advance

Basicly, the last "executed statement" of a script should evaluate to true,
ie 1.

gtoomey

 

[Sam Holden]

Basicly, the last "executed statement" of a script should evaluate to true,
ie 1.

Why?

That is the case for a module or a library, since otherwise it won't work,
but for a script it makes no difference at all what the result of the last
executed statement was.