caller - get context of the current subroutine call
caller EXPR
caller
Returns the context of the current subroutine call. In a scalar context, returns the caller’s package name if there is a caller, that is, if we’re in a subroutine or eval() or require(), and the undefined value otherwise. In a list context, returns
($package, $filename, $line) = caller;
With EXPR, it returns some extra information that the debugger uses to print a stack trace. The value of EXPR indicates how many call frames to go back before the current one.
($package,
$filename, $line, $subroutine,
$hasargs, $wantarray, $evaltext, $is_require) =
caller($i);
Here $subroutine may be "(eval)" if the frame is not a subroutine call, but an eval. In such a case additional elements $evaltext and $is_require are set: $is_require is true if the frame is created by a require or use statement, $evaltext contains the text of the eval EXPR statement. In particular, for a eval BLOCK statement, $filename is "(eval)", but $evaltext is undefined. (Note also that each use statement creates a require frame inside an eval EXPR) frame.
Furthermore, when called from within the DB package, caller returns more detailed information: it sets the list variable @DB::args to be the arguments with which the subroutine was invoked.