get_pkg_gen

Return a counter that increments every time a local method in $class changes or its local @ISA is modified.

Synopsis

my $gen = mro::get_pkg_gen($class);

Useful to class-introspection code that wants a cheap “has anything I care about changed since last time?” check. Store the value, do your work, compare the next value against the stored one. Equal values mean nothing local changed; unequal values mean something did, but you still have to investigate what.

Changes in superclasses do not bump this number — only edits inside $class itself. A stash instantiated for a normal package starts at 1; $class with no stash at all returns 0. Wiping a stash (undef %Pkg::) can reset the counter to 0 or 1 depending on how thorough the wipe was.