1Pod::Simple::Search(3)User Contributed Perl DocumentationPod::Simple::Search(3)
2
6 Pod::Simple::Search - find POD documents in directory trees
7
9 use Pod::Simple::Search;
10 my $name2path = Pod::Simple::Search->new->limit_glob('LWP::*')->survey;
11 print "Looky see what I found: ",
12 join(' ', sort keys %$name2path), "\n";
13 print "LWPUA docs = ",
15 Pod::Simple::Search->new->find('LWP::UserAgent') || "?",
16 "\n";
17
19 Pod::Simple::Search is a class that you use for running searches for
20 Pod files. An object of this class has several attributes (mostly
21 options for controlling search options), and some methods for searching
22 based on those attributes.
23 The way to use this class is to make a new object of this class, set
25 any options, and then call one of the search options (probably "survey"
26 or "find"). The sections below discuss the syntaxes for doing all
27 that.
28
30 This class provides the one constructor, called "new". It takes no
31 parameters:
32 use Pod::Simple::Search;
34 my $search = Pod::Simple::Search->new;
35
37 This class defines several methods for setting (and, occasionally,
38 reading) the contents of an object. With two exceptions (discussed at
39 the end of this section), these attributes are just for controlling the
40 way searches are carried out.
41 Note that each of these return $self when you call them as
43 "$self->whatever(value)". That's so that you can chain together set-
44 attribute calls like this:
45 my $name2path =
47 Pod::Simple::Search->new
48 -> inc(0) -> verbose(1) -> callback(\&blab)
49 ->survey(@there);
50 ...which works exactly as if you'd done this:
52 my $search = Pod::Simple::Search->new;
54 $search->inc(0);
55 $search->verbose(1);
56 $search->callback(\&blab);
57 my $name2path = $search->survey(@there);
58 $search->inc( true-or-false );
60 This attribute, if set to a true value, means that searches should
61 implicitly add perl's @INC paths. This automatically considers
62 paths specified in the "PERL5LIB" environment as this is prepended
63 to @INC by the Perl interpreter itself. This attribute's default
64 value is TRUE. If you want to search only specific directories,
65 set $self->inc(0) before calling $inc->survey or $inc->find.
66 $search->verbose( nonnegative-number );
68 This attribute, if set to a nonzero positive value, will make
69 searches output (via "warn") notes about what they're doing as they
70 do it. This option may be useful for debugging a pod-related
71 module. This attribute's default value is zero, meaning that no
72 "warn" messages are produced. (Setting verbose to 1 turns on some
73 messages, and setting it to 2 turns on even more messages, i.e.,
74 makes the following search(es) even more verbose than 1 would make
75 them.)
76 $search->limit_glob( some-glob-string );
78 This option means that you want to limit the results just to items
79 whose podnames match the given glob/wildcard expression. For
80 example, you might limit your search to just "LWP::*", to search
81 only for modules starting with "LWP::*" (but not including the
82 module "LWP" itself); or you might limit your search to "LW*" to
83 see only modules whose (full) names begin with "LW"; or you might
84 search for "*Find*" to search for all modules with "Find" somewhere
85 in their full name. (You can also use "?" in a glob expression; so
86 "DB?" will match "DBI" and "DBD".)
87 $search->callback( \&some_routine );
89 This attribute means that every time this search sees a matching
90 Pod file, it should call this callback routine. The routine is
91 called with two parameters: the current file's filespec, and its
92 pod name. (For example: "("/etc/perljunk/File/Crunk.pm",
93 "File::Crunk")" would be in @_.)
94 The callback routine's return value is not used for anything.
96 This attribute's default value is false, meaning that no callback
98 is called.
99 $search->laborious( true-or-false );
101 Unless you set this attribute to a true value, Pod::Search will
102 apply Perl-specific heuristics to find the correct module PODs
103 quickly. This attribute's default value is false. You won't
104 normally need to set this to true.
105 Specifically: Turning on this option will disable the heuristics
107 for seeing only files with Perl-like extensions, omitting
108 subdirectories that are numeric but do not match the current Perl
109 interpreter's version ID, suppressing site_perl as a module
110 hierarchy name, etc.
111 $search->shadows( true-or-false );
113 Unless you set this attribute to a true value, Pod::Simple::Search
114 will consider only the first file of a given modulename as it looks
115 thru the specified directories; that is, with this option off, if
116 Pod::Simple::Search has seen a "somepathdir/Foo/Bar.pm" already in
117 this search, then it won't bother looking at a
118 "somelaterpathdir/Foo/Bar.pm" later on in that search, because that
119 file is merely a "shadow". But if you turn on "$self->shadows(1)",
120 then these "shadow" files are inspected too, and are noted in the
121 pathname2podname return hash.
122 This attribute's default value is false; and normally you won't
124 need to turn it on.
125 $search->limit_re( some-regxp );
127 Setting this attribute (to a value that's a regexp) means that you
128 want to limit the results just to items whose podnames match the
129 given regexp. Normally this option is not needed, and the more
130 efficient "limit_glob" attribute is used instead.
131 $search->dir_prefix( some-string-value );
133 Setting this attribute to a string value means that the searches
134 should begin in the specified subdirectory name (like "Pod" or
135 "File::Find", also expressable as "File/Find"). For example, the
136 search option "$search->limit_glob("File::Find::R*")" is the same
137 as the combination of the search options
138 "$search->limit_re("^File::Find::R") -> dir_prefix("File::Find")".
139 Normally you don't need to know about the "dir_prefix" option, but
141 I include it in case it might prove useful for someone somewhere.
142 (Implementationally, searching with limit_glob ends up setting
144 limit_re and usually dir_prefix.)
145 $search->progress( some-progress-object );
147 If you set a value for this attribute, the value is expected to be
148 an object (probably of a class that you define) that has a "reach"
149 method and a "done" method. This is meant for reporting progress
150 during the search, if you don't want to use a simple callback.
151 Normally you don't need to know about the "progress" option, but I
153 include it in case it might prove useful for someone somewhere.
154 While a search is in progress, the progress object's "reach" and
156 "done" methods are called like this:
157 # Every time a file is being scanned for pod:
159 $progress->reach($count, "Scanning $file"); ++$count;
160 # And then at the end of the search:
162 $progress->done("Noted $count Pod files total");
163 Internally, we often set this to an object of class
165 Pod::Simple::Progress. That class is probably undocumented, but
166 you may wish to look at its source.
167 $name2path = $self->name2path;
169 This attribute is not a search parameter, but is used to report the
170 result of "survey" method, as discussed in the next section.
171 $path2name = $self->path2name;
173 This attribute is not a search parameter, but is used to report the
174 result of "survey" method, as discussed in the next section.
175
177 Once you've actually set any options you want (if any), you can go
178 ahead and use the following methods to search for Pod files in
179 particular ways.
180 "$search->survey( @directories )"
182 The method "survey" searches for POD documents in a given set of files
183 and/or directories. This runs the search according to the various
184 options set by the accessors above. (For example, if the "inc"
185 attribute is on, as it is by default, then the perl @INC directories
186 are implicitly added to the list of directories (if any) that you
187 specify.)
188 The return value of "survey" is two hashes:
190 "name2path"
192 A hash that maps from each pod-name to the filespec (like
193 "Stuff::Thing" => "/whatever/plib/Stuff/Thing.pm")
194 "path2name"
196 A hash that maps from each Pod filespec to its pod-name (like
197 "/whatever/plib/Stuff/Thing.pm" => "Stuff::Thing")
198 Besides saving these hashes as the hashref attributes "name2path" and
200 "path2name", calling this function also returns these hashrefs. In
201 list context, the return value of "$search->survey" is the list
202 "(\%name2path, \%path2name)". In scalar context, the return value is
203 "\%name2path". Or you can just call this in void context.
204 Regardless of calling context, calling "survey" saves its results in
206 its "name2path" and "path2name" attributes.
207 E.g., when searching in $HOME/perl5lib, the file
209 $HOME/perl5lib/MyModule.pm would get the POD name MyModule, whereas
210 $HOME/perl5lib/Myclass/Subclass.pm would be Myclass::Subclass. The name
211 information can be used for POD translators.
212 Only text files containing at least one valid POD command are found.
214 In verbose mode, a warning is printed if shadows are found (i.e., more
216 than one POD file with the same POD name is found, e.g. CPAN.pm in
217 different directories). This usually indicates duplicate occurrences
218 of modules in the @INC search path, which is occasionally inadvertent
219 (but is often simply a case of a user's path dir having a more recent
220 version than the system's general path dirs in general.)
221 The options to this argument is a list of either directories that are
223 searched recursively, or files. (Usually you wouldn't specify files,
224 but just dirs.) Or you can just specify an empty-list, as in
225 $name2path; with the "inc" option on, as it is by default, teh
226 The POD names of files are the plain basenames with any Perl-like
228 extension (.pm, .pl, .pod) stripped, and path separators replaced by
229 "::"'s.
230 Calling Pod::Simple::Search->search(...) is short for
232 Pod::Simple::Search->new->search(...). That is, a throwaway object
233 with default attribute values is used.
234 "$search->simplify_name( $str )"
236 The method simplify_name is equivalent to basename, but also strips
237 Perl-like extensions (.pm, .pl, .pod) and extensions like .bat, .cmd on
238 Win32 and OS/2, or .com on VMS, respectively.
239 "$search->find( $pod )"
241 "$search->find( $pod, @search_dirs )"
242 Returns the location of a Pod file, given a Pod/module/script name
243 (like "Foo::Bar" or "perlvar" or "perldoc"), and an idea of what
244 files/directories to look in. It searches according to the various
245 options set by the accessors above. (For example, if the "inc"
246 attribute is on, as it is by default, then the perl @INC directories
247 are implicitly added to the list of directories (if any) that you
248 specify.)
249 This returns the full path of the first occurrence to the file.
251 Package names (eg 'A::B') are automatically converted to directory
252 names in the selected directory. Additionally, '.pm', '.pl' and '.pod'
253 are automatically appended to the search as required. (So, for
254 example, under Unix, "A::B" is converted to "somedir/A/B.pm",
255 "somedir/A/B.pod", or "somedir/A/B.pl", as appropriate.)
256 If no such Pod file is found, this method returns undef.
258 If any of the given search directories contains a pod/ subdirectory,
260 then it is searched. (That's how we manage to find perlfunc, for
261 example, which is usually in pod/perlfunc in most Perl dists.)
262 The "verbose" and "inc" attributes influence the behavior of this
264 search; notably, "inc", if true, adds @INC and also
265 $Config::Config{'scriptdir'} to the list of directories to search.
266 It is common to simply say "$filename = Pod::Simple::Search-> new
268 ->find("perlvar")" so that just the @INC (well, and scriptdir)
269 directories are searched. (This happens because the "inc" attribute is
270 true by default.)
271 Calling Pod::Simple::Search->find(...) is short for
273 Pod::Simple::Search->new->find(...). That is, a throwaway object with
274 default attribute values is used.
275 "$self->contains_pod( $file )"
277 Returns true if the supplied filename (not POD module) contains some
278 Pod documentation. =head1 SUPPORT
279 Questions or discussion about POD and Pod::Simple should be sent to the
281 pod-people@perl.org mail list. Send an empty email to
282 pod-people-subscribe@perl.org to subscribe.
283 This module is managed in an open GitHub repository,
285 <https://github.com/theory/pod-simple/>. Feel free to fork and
286 contribute, or to clone <git://github.com/theory/pod-simple.git> and
287 send patches!
288 Patches against Pod::Simple are welcome. Please send bug reports to
290 <bug-pod-simple@rt.cpan.org>.
291
293 Copyright (c) 2002 Sean M. Burke.
294 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
296 under the same terms as Perl itself.
297 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
299 without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of
300 merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
301
303 Pod::Simple was created by Sean M. Burke <sburke@cpan.org> with code
304 borrowed from Marek Rouchal's Pod::Find, which in turn heavily borrowed
305 code from Nick Ing-Simmons' "PodToHtml".
306 But don't bother him, he's retired.
308 Pod::Simple is maintained by:
310 · Allison Randal "allison@perl.org"
312 · Hans Dieter Pearcey "hdp@cpan.org"
314 · David E. Wheeler "dwheeler@cpan.org"
316perl v5.16.3 2013-05-03 Pod::Simple::Search(3)