#sub NAME BLOCK

#sub NAME (PROTO) BLOCK

#sub NAME : ATTRS BLOCK

#sub NAME (PROTO) : ATTRS BLOCK

This is subroutine definition, not a real function per se. Without a BLOCK it's just a forward declaration. Without a NAME, it's an anonymous function declaration, and does actually return a value: the CODE ref of the closure you just created.

See perlsub and perlref for details about subroutines and references, and attributes and Attribute::Handlers for more information about attributes.

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