Opcode(3perl) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Opcode(3perl)
NAME
Opcode - Disable named opcodes when compiling perl code
SYNOPSIS
use Opcode;
DESCRIPTION
Perl code is always compiled into an internal format before execution.
Evaluating perl code (e.g. via "eval" or "do 'file'") causes the code to
be compiled into an internal format and then, provided there was no
error in the compilation, executed. The internal format is based on
many distinct opcodes.
By default no opmask is in effect and any code can be compiled.
The Opcode module allow you to define an operator mask to be in effect
when perl next compiles any code. Attempting to compile code which
contains a masked opcode will cause the compilation to fail with an
error. The code will not be executed.
NOTE
The Opcode module is not usually used directly. See the ops pragma and
Safe modules for more typical uses.
WARNING
The Opcode module does not implement an effective sandbox for evaluating
untrusted code with the perl interpreter.
Bugs in the perl interpreter that could be abused to bypass Opcode
restrictions are not treated as vulnerabilities. See perlsecpolicy for
additional information.
The authors make no warranty, implied or otherwise, about the
suitability of this software for safety or security purposes.
The authors shall not in any case be liable for special, incidental,
consequential, indirect or other similar damages arising from the use of
this software.
Your mileage will vary. If in any doubt do not use it.
Operator Names and Operator Lists
The canonical list of operator names is the contents of the array
PL_op_name defined and initialised in file opcode.h of the Perl source
distribution (and installed into the perl library).
Each operator has both a terse name (its opname) and a more verbose or
recognisable descriptive name. The opdesc function can be used to return
a list of descriptions for a list of operators.
Many of the functions and methods listed below take a list of operators
as parameters. Most operator lists can be made up of several types of
element. Each element can be one of
an operator name (opname)
Operator names are typically small lowercase words like
enterloop, leaveloop, last, next, redo etc. Sometimes they are
rather cryptic like gv2cv, i_ncmp and ftsvtx.
an operator tag name (optag)
Operator tags can be used to refer to groups (or sets) of
operators. Tag names always begin with a colon. The Opcode
module defines several optags and the user can define others
using the define_optag function.
a negated opname or optag
An opname or optag can be prefixed with an exclamation mark,
e.g., !mkdir. Negating an opname or optag means remove the
corresponding ops from the accumulated set of ops at that point.
an operator set (opset)
An opset as a binary string of approximately 44 bytes which
holds a set or zero or more operators.
The opset and opset_to_ops functions can be used to convert from
a list of operators to an opset and vice versa.
Wherever a list of operators can be given you can use one or
more opsets. See also Manipulating Opsets below.
Opcode Functions
The Opcode package contains functions for manipulating operator names
tags and sets. All are available for export by the package.
opcodes In a scalar context opcodes returns the number of opcodes in
this version of perl (around 350 for perl-5.7.0).
In a list context it returns a list of all the operator names.
(Not yet implemented, use @names = opset_to_ops(full_opset).)
opset (OP, ...)
Returns an opset containing the listed operators.
opset_to_ops (OPSET)
Returns a list of operator names corresponding to those
operators in the set.
opset_to_hex (OPSET)
Returns a string representation of an opset. Can be handy for
debugging.
full_opset
Returns an opset which includes all operators.
empty_opset
Returns an opset which contains no operators.
invert_opset (OPSET)
Returns an opset which is the inverse set of the one supplied.
verify_opset (OPSET, ...)
Returns true if the supplied opset looks like a valid opset (is
the right length etc) otherwise it returns false. If an optional
second parameter is true then verify_opset will croak on an
invalid opset instead of returning false.
Most of the other Opcode functions call verify_opset
automatically and will croak if given an invalid opset.
define_optag (OPTAG, OPSET)
Define OPTAG as a symbolic name for OPSET. Optag names always
start with a colon ":".
The optag name used must not be defined already (define_optag
will croak if it is already defined). Optag names are global to
the perl process and optag definitions cannot be altered or
deleted once defined.
It is strongly recommended that applications using Opcode should
use a leading capital letter on their tag names since lowercase
names are reserved for use by the Opcode module. If using Opcode
within a module you should prefix your tags names with the name
of your module to ensure uniqueness and thus avoid clashes with
other modules.
opmask_add (OPSET)
Adds the supplied opset to the current opmask. Note that there
is currently no mechanism for unmasking ops once they have been
masked. This is intentional.
opmask Returns an opset corresponding to the current opmask.
opdesc (OP, ...)
This takes a list of operator names and returns the
corresponding list of operator descriptions.
opdump (PAT)
Dumps to STDOUT a two column list of op names and op
descriptions. If an optional pattern is given then only lines
which match the (case insensitive) pattern will be output.
It's designed to be used as a handy command line utility:
perl -MOpcode=opdump -e opdump
perl -MOpcode=opdump -e 'opdump Eval'
Manipulating Opsets
Opsets may be manipulated using the perl bit vector operators & (and), |
(or), ^ (xor) and ~ (negate/invert).
However you should never rely on the numerical position of any opcode
within the opset. In other words both sides of a bit vector operator
should be opsets returned from Opcode functions.
Also, since the number of opcodes in your current version of perl might
not be an exact multiple of eight, there may be unused bits in the last
byte of an upset. This should not cause any problems (Opcode functions
ignore those extra bits) but it does mean that using the ~ operator will
typically not produce the same 'physical' opset 'string' as the
invert_opset function.
TO DO (maybe)
$bool = opset_eq($opset1, $opset2) true if opsets are logically
equivalent
$yes = opset_can($opset, @ops) true if $opset has all @ops set
@diff = opset_diff($opset1, $opset2) => ('foo', '!bar', ...)
Predefined Opcode Tags
:base_core
null stub scalar pushmark wantarray const defined undef
rv2sv sassign padsv_store
rv2av aassign aelem aelemfast aelemfast_lex aslice kvaslice
av2arylen aelemfastlex_store
rv2hv helem hslice kvhslice each values keys exists delete
aeach akeys avalues multideref argelem argdefelem argcheck
preinc i_preinc predec i_predec postinc i_postinc
postdec i_postdec int hex oct abs pow multiply i_multiply
divide i_divide modulo i_modulo add i_add subtract i_subtract
left_shift right_shift bit_and bit_xor bit_or nbit_and
nbit_xor nbit_or sbit_and sbit_xor sbit_or negate i_negate not
complement ncomplement scomplement
lt i_lt gt i_gt le i_le ge i_ge eq i_eq ne i_ne ncmp i_ncmp
slt sgt sle sge seq sne scmp
isa
substr vec stringify study pos length index rindex ord chr
ucfirst lcfirst uc lc fc quotemeta trans transr chop schop
chomp schomp
match split qr
list lslice splice push pop shift unshift reverse
cond_expr flip flop andassign orassign dorassign and or dor xor
helemexistsor
warn die lineseq nextstate scope enter leave
rv2cv anoncode prototype coreargs avhvswitch anonconst
emptyavhv
entersub leavesub leavesublv return method method_named
method_super method_redir method_redir_super
-- XXX loops via recursion?
cmpchain_and cmpchain_dup
is_bool
is_weak weaken unweaken
leaveeval -- needed for Safe to operate, is safe
without entereval
methstart initfield
:base_mem
These memory related ops are not included in :base_core because
they can easily be used to implement a resource attack (e.g.,
consume all available memory).
concat multiconcat repeat join range
anonlist anonhash
Note that despite the existence of this optag a memory resource
attack may still be possible using only :base_core ops.
Disabling these ops is a very heavy handed way to attempt to
prevent a memory resource attack. It's probable that a specific
memory limit mechanism will be added to perl in the near future.
:base_loop
These loop ops are not included in :base_core because they can
easily be used to implement a resource attack (e.g., consume all
available CPU time).
grepstart grepwhile
mapstart mapwhile
enteriter iter
enterloop leaveloop unstack
last next redo
goto
:base_io
These ops enable filehandle (rather than filename) based input and
output. These are safe on the assumption that only pre-existing
filehandles are available for use. Usually, to create new
filehandles other ops such as open would need to be enabled, if you
don't take into account the magical open of ARGV.
readline rcatline getc read
formline enterwrite leavewrite
print say sysread syswrite send recv
eof tell seek sysseek
readdir telldir seekdir rewinddir
:base_orig
These are a hotchpotch of opcodes still waiting to be considered
gvsv gv gelem
padsv padav padhv padcv padany padrange introcv clonecv
once
rv2gv refgen srefgen ref refassign lvref lvrefslice lvavref
blessed refaddr reftype
bless -- could be used to change ownership of objects
(reblessing)
regcmaybe regcreset regcomp subst substcont
sprintf prtf -- can core dump
crypt
tie untie
dbmopen dbmclose
sselect select
pipe_op sockpair
getppid getpgrp setpgrp getpriority setpriority
localtime gmtime
entertry leavetry -- can be used to 'hide' fatal errors
entertrycatch poptry catch leavetrycatch -- similar
entergiven leavegiven
enterwhen leavewhen
break continue
smartmatch
pushdefer
custom -- where should this go
ceil floor
is_tainted
:base_math
These ops are not included in :base_core because of the risk of
them being used to generate floating point exceptions (which would
have to be caught using a $SIG{FPE} handler).
atan2 sin cos exp log sqrt
These ops are not included in :base_core because they have an
effect beyond the scope of the compartment.
rand srand
:base_thread
These ops are related to multi-threading.
lock
:default
A handy tag name for a reasonable default set of ops. (The current
ops allowed are unstable while development continues. It will
change.)
:base_core :base_mem :base_loop :base_orig :base_thread
This list used to contain :base_io prior to Opcode 1.07.
If safety matters to you (and why else would you be using the
Opcode module?) then you should not rely on the definition of
this, or indeed any other, optag!
:filesys_read
stat lstat readlink
ftatime ftblk ftchr ftctime ftdir fteexec fteowned
fteread ftewrite ftfile ftis ftlink ftmtime ftpipe
ftrexec ftrowned ftrread ftsgid ftsize ftsock ftsuid
fttty ftzero ftrwrite ftsvtx
fttext ftbinary
fileno
:sys_db
ghbyname ghbyaddr ghostent shostent ehostent -- hosts
gnbyname gnbyaddr gnetent snetent enetent -- networks
gpbyname gpbynumber gprotoent sprotoent eprotoent -- protocols
gsbyname gsbyport gservent sservent eservent -- services
gpwnam gpwuid gpwent spwent epwent getlogin -- users
ggrnam ggrgid ggrent sgrent egrent -- groups
:browse
A handy tag name for a reasonable default set of ops beyond the
:default optag. Like :default (and indeed all the other optags)
its current definition is unstable while development continues. It
will change.
The :browse tag represents the next step beyond :default. It is a
superset of the :default ops and adds :filesys_read the :sys_db.
The intent being that scripts can access more (possibly sensitive)
information about your system but not be able to change it.
:default :filesys_read :sys_db
:filesys_open
sysopen open close
umask binmode
open_dir closedir -- other dir ops are in :base_io
:filesys_write
link unlink rename symlink truncate
mkdir rmdir
utime chmod chown
fcntl -- not strictly filesys related, but possibly as
dangerous?
:subprocess
backtick system
fork
wait waitpid
glob -- access to Cshell via <`rm *`>
:ownprocess
exec exit kill
time tms -- could be used for timing attacks (paranoid?)
:others
This tag holds groups of assorted specialist opcodes that don't
warrant having optags defined for them.
SystemV Interprocess Communications:
msgctl msgget msgrcv msgsnd
semctl semget semop
shmctl shmget shmread shmwrite
:load
This tag holds opcodes related to loading modules and getting
information about calling environment and args.
require dofile
caller runcv classname
:still_to_be_decided
chdir
flock ioctl
socket getpeername ssockopt
bind connect listen accept shutdown gsockopt getsockname
sleep alarm -- changes global timer state and signal handling
sort -- assorted problems including core dumps
tied -- can be used to access object implementing a tie
pack unpack -- can be used to create/use memory pointers
hintseval -- constant op holding eval hints
entereval -- can be used to hide code from initial compile
reset
dbstate -- perl -d version of nextstate(ment) opcode
:dangerous
This tag is simply a bucket for opcodes that are unlikely to be
used via a tag name but need to be tagged for completeness and
documentation.
syscall dump chroot
SEE ALSO
ops -- perl pragma interface to Opcode module.
Safe -- Opcode and namespace limited execution compartments
AUTHORS
Originally designed and implemented by Malcolm Beattie,
mbeattie@sable.ox.ac.uk as part of Safe version 1.
Split out from Safe module version 1, named opcode tags and other
changes added by Tim Bunce.
perl v5.40.1 2026-08-30 Opcode(3perl)
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