NAME

XS::Tutorial - documentation with examples for learning Perl XS

• XS::Tutorial::One - how to pass to and return basic values from C functions

• XS::Tutorial::Two - working with more than one value at a time

• XS::Tutorial::Three - utility routines that are good to know

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

XS Mechanics by Steven W. McDougall

A clear introduction to XS programming.

Extending and Embedding Perl (Manning) by Simon Cozens and Tim Jenness

A thorough introduction, with many examples. Outdated in parts (mostly data structures) but still an excellent reference.

perldoc

• perlxs: syntax of xsubs

• perlapi : C macros used to interact with Perl data structures (and the interpreter)

• perlguts: Perl data structures

• perlxstypemap: typemap syntax (translating C types into Perl)

• perlcall: how to call Perl subroutines and methods from XS

• perlxstut: another XS tutorial

ExtUtils::MakeMaker

The documentation explains all of the options in Makefile.PL. Useful if you need to pass additional flags or options to the C compiler.

ppport.h

A header file, needed for compatibility across Perl versions. See Devel::PPPort.

Perl source code

if you can’t find an answer in documentation, grep the source.