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->recurse( true-or-false );
113 Unless you set this attribute to a false value, Pod::Search will
114 recurse into subdirectories of the search directories.
115 $search->shadows( true-or-false );
117 Unless you set this attribute to a true value, Pod::Simple::Search
118 will consider only the first file of a given modulename as it looks
119 thru the specified directories; that is, with this option off, if
120 Pod::Simple::Search has seen a "somepathdir/Foo/Bar.pm" already in
121 this search, then it won't bother looking at a
122 "somelaterpathdir/Foo/Bar.pm" later on in that search, because that
123 file is merely a "shadow". But if you turn on "$self->shadows(1)",
124 then these "shadow" files are inspected too, and are noted in the
125 pathname2podname return hash.
126 This attribute's default value is false; and normally you won't
128 need to turn it on.
129 $search->limit_re( some-regxp );
131 Setting this attribute (to a value that's a regexp) means that you
132 want to limit the results just to items whose podnames match the
133 given regexp. Normally this option is not needed, and the more
134 efficient "limit_glob" attribute is used instead.
135 $search->dir_prefix( some-string-value );
137 Setting this attribute to a string value means that the searches
138 should begin in the specified subdirectory name (like "Pod" or
139 "File::Find", also expressible as "File/Find"). For example, the
140 search option "$search->limit_glob("File::Find::R*")" is the same
141 as the combination of the search options
142 "$search->limit_re("^File::Find::R") -> dir_prefix("File::Find")".
143 Normally you don't need to know about the "dir_prefix" option, but
145 I include it in case it might prove useful for someone somewhere.
146 (Implementationally, searching with limit_glob ends up setting
148 limit_re and usually dir_prefix.)
149 $search->progress( some-progress-object );
151 If you set a value for this attribute, the value is expected to be
152 an object (probably of a class that you define) that has a "reach"
153 method and a "done" method. This is meant for reporting progress
154 during the search, if you don't want to use a simple callback.
155 Normally you don't need to know about the "progress" option, but I
157 include it in case it might prove useful for someone somewhere.
158 While a search is in progress, the progress object's "reach" and
160 "done" methods are called like this:
161 # Every time a file is being scanned for pod:
163 $progress->reach($count, "Scanning $file"); ++$count;
164 # And then at the end of the search:
166 $progress->done("Noted $count Pod files total");
167 Internally, we often set this to an object of class
169 Pod::Simple::Progress. That class is probably undocumented, but
170 you may wish to look at its source.
171 $name2path = $self->name2path;
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 $path2name = $self->path2name;
177 This attribute is not a search parameter, but is used to report the
178 result of "survey" method, as discussed in the next section.
179
181 Once you've actually set any options you want (if any), you can go
182 ahead and use the following methods to search for Pod files in
183 particular ways.
184 "$search->survey( @directories )"
186 The method "survey" searches for POD documents in a given set of files
187 and/or directories. This runs the search according to the various
188 options set by the accessors above. (For example, if the "inc"
189 attribute is on, as it is by default, then the perl @INC directories
190 are implicitly added to the list of directories (if any) that you
191 specify.)
192 The return value of "survey" is two hashes:
194 "name2path"
196 A hash that maps from each pod-name to the filespec (like
197 "Stuff::Thing" => "/whatever/plib/Stuff/Thing.pm")
198 "path2name"
200 A hash that maps from each Pod filespec to its pod-name (like
201 "/whatever/plib/Stuff/Thing.pm" => "Stuff::Thing")
202 Besides saving these hashes as the hashref attributes "name2path" and
204 "path2name", calling this function also returns these hashrefs. In
205 list context, the return value of "$search->survey" is the list
206 "(\%name2path, \%path2name)". In scalar context, the return value is
207 "\%name2path". Or you can just call this in void context.
208 Regardless of calling context, calling "survey" saves its results in
210 its "name2path" and "path2name" attributes.
211 E.g., when searching in $HOME/perl5lib, the file
213 $HOME/perl5lib/MyModule.pm would get the POD name MyModule, whereas
214 $HOME/perl5lib/Myclass/Subclass.pm would be Myclass::Subclass. The name
215 information can be used for POD translators.
216 Only text files containing at least one valid POD command are found.
218 In verbose mode, a warning is printed if shadows are found (i.e., more
220 than one POD file with the same POD name is found, e.g. CPAN.pm in
221 different directories). This usually indicates duplicate occurrences
222 of modules in the @INC search path, which is occasionally inadvertent
223 (but is often simply a case of a user's path dir having a more recent
224 version than the system's general path dirs in general.)
225 The options to this argument is a list of either directories that are
227 searched recursively, or files. (Usually you wouldn't specify files,
228 but just dirs.) Or you can just specify an empty-list, as in
229 $name2path; with the "inc" option on, as it is by default.
230 The POD names of files are the plain basenames with any Perl-like
232 extension (.pm, .pl, .pod) stripped, and path separators replaced by
233 "::"'s.
234 Calling Pod::Simple::Search->search(...) is short for
236 Pod::Simple::Search->new->search(...). That is, a throwaway object
237 with default attribute values is used.
238 "$search->simplify_name( $str )"
240 The method simplify_name is equivalent to basename, but also strips
241 Perl-like extensions (.pm, .pl, .pod) and extensions like .bat, .cmd on
242 Win32 and OS/2, or .com on VMS, respectively.
243 "$search->find( $pod )"
245 "$search->find( $pod, @search_dirs )"
246 Returns the location of a Pod file, given a Pod/module/script name
247 (like "Foo::Bar" or "perlvar" or "perldoc"), and an idea of what
248 files/directories to look in. It searches according to the various
249 options set by the accessors above. (For example, if the "inc"
250 attribute is on, as it is by default, then the perl @INC directories
251 are implicitly added to the list of directories (if any) that you
252 specify.)
253 This returns the full path of the first occurrence to the file.
255 Package names (eg 'A::B') are automatically converted to directory
256 names in the selected directory. Additionally, '.pm', '.pl' and '.pod'
257 are automatically appended to the search as required. (So, for
258 example, under Unix, "A::B" is converted to "somedir/A/B.pm",
259 "somedir/A/B.pod", or "somedir/A/B.pl", as appropriate.)
260 If no such Pod file is found, this method returns undef.
262 If any of the given search directories contains a pod/ subdirectory,
264 then it is searched. (That's how we manage to find perlfunc, for
265 example, which is usually in pod/perlfunc in most Perl dists.)
266 The "verbose" and "inc" attributes influence the behavior of this
268 search; notably, "inc", if true, adds @INC and also
269 $Config::Config{'scriptdir'} to the list of directories to search.
270 It is common to simply say "$filename = Pod::Simple::Search-> new
272 ->find("perlvar")" so that just the @INC (well, and scriptdir)
273 directories are searched. (This happens because the "inc" attribute is
274 true by default.)
275 Calling Pod::Simple::Search->find(...) is short for
277 Pod::Simple::Search->new->find(...). That is, a throwaway object with
278 default attribute values is used.
279 "$self->contains_pod( $file )"
281 Returns true if the supplied filename (not POD module) contains some
282 Pod documentation.
283
285 Questions or discussion about POD and Pod::Simple should be sent to the
286 pod-people@perl.org mail list. Send an empty email to
287 pod-people-subscribe@perl.org to subscribe.
288 This module is managed in an open GitHub repository,
290 <https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple/>. Feel free to fork and
291 contribute, or to clone <git://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple.git> and
292 send patches!
293 Patches against Pod::Simple are welcome. Please send bug reports to
295 <bug-pod-simple@rt.cpan.org>.
296
298 Copyright (c) 2002 Sean M. Burke.
299 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
301 under the same terms as Perl itself.
302 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
304 without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of
305 merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
306
308 Pod::Simple was created by Sean M. Burke <sburke@cpan.org> with code
309 borrowed from Marek Rouchal's Pod::Find, which in turn heavily borrowed
310 code from Nick Ing-Simmons' "PodToHtml".
311 But don't bother him, he's retired.
313 Pod::Simple is maintained by:
315 · Allison Randal "allison@perl.org"
317 · Hans Dieter Pearcey "hdp@cpan.org"
319 · David E. Wheeler "dwheeler@cpan.org"
321perl v5.26.3 2016-11-29 Pod::Simple::Search(3)