Why do I have to use a * in front of a Perl bareword filehandle?

Question

While trying to do this:

 my $obj = new JavaScript::Minifier;
 $obj->minify(*STDIN, *STDOUT);
// modified above line to
 $obj->minify(*IP_HANDLE,*OP_HA         


        

Answer 1

It's the glob sigil. *FOO refers to the glob named "FOO", just like $FOO refers to the scalar named "FOO", and so forth. Globs are usually code references or filehandles.

You need the sigil present in order to modify a glob value, eg *name_of_sub = sub{};, or to take its value without invoking special syntax, eg of calling a sub.