1Pod::Text(3pm) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Pod::Text(3pm)
2
6 Pod::Text - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text
7
9 use Pod::Text;
10 my $parser = Pod::Text->new (sentence => 0, width => 78);
11 # Read POD from STDIN and write to STDOUT.
13 $parser->parse_from_filehandle;
14 # Read POD from file.pod and write to file.txt.
16 $parser->parse_from_file ('file.pod', 'file.txt');
17
19 Pod::Text is a module that can convert documentation in the POD format
20 (the preferred language for documenting Perl) into formatted ASCII. It
21 uses no special formatting controls or codes whatsoever, and its output
22 is therefore suitable for nearly any device.
23 As a derived class from Pod::Simple, Pod::Text supports the same
25 methods and interfaces. See Pod::Simple for all the details; briefly,
26 one creates a new parser with "Pod::Text->new()" and then normally
27 calls parse_file().
28 new() can take options, in the form of key/value pairs, that control
30 the behavior of the parser. The currently recognized options are:
31 alt If set to a true value, selects an alternate output format that,
33 among other things, uses a different heading style and marks
34 "=item" entries with a colon in the left margin. Defaults to
35 false.
36 code
38 If set to a true value, the non-POD parts of the input file will be
39 included in the output. Useful for viewing code documented with
40 POD blocks with the POD rendered and the code left intact.
41 indent
43 The number of spaces to indent regular text, and the default
44 indentation for "=over" blocks. Defaults to 4.
45 loose
47 If set to a true value, a blank line is printed after a "=head1"
48 heading. If set to false (the default), no blank line is printed
49 after "=head1", although one is still printed after "=head2". This
50 is the default because it's the expected formatting for manual
51 pages; if you're formatting arbitrary text documents, setting this
52 to true may result in more pleasing output.
53 margin
55 The width of the left margin in spaces. Defaults to 0. This is
56 the margin for all text, including headings, not the amount by
57 which regular text is indented; for the latter, see the indent
58 option. To set the right margin, see the width option.
59 quotes
61 Sets the quote marks used to surround C<> text. If the value is a
62 single character, it is used as both the left and right quote; if
63 it is two characters, the first character is used as the left quote
64 and the second as the right quoted; and if it is four characters,
65 the first two are used as the left quote and the second two as the
66 right quote.
67 This may also be set to the special value "none", in which case no
69 quote marks are added around C<> text.
70 sentence
72 If set to a true value, Pod::Text will assume that each sentence
73 ends in two spaces, and will try to preserve that spacing. If set
74 to false, all consecutive whitespace in non-verbatim paragraphs is
75 compressed into a single space. Defaults to true.
76 stderr
78 Send error messages about invalid POD to standard error instead of
79 appending a POD ERRORS section to the generated output.
80 utf8
82 By default, Pod::Text uses the same output encoding as the input
83 encoding of the POD source (provided that Perl was built with
84 PerlIO; otherwise, it doesn't encode its output). If this option
85 is given, the output encoding is forced to UTF-8.
86 Be aware that, when using this option, the input encoding of your
88 POD source must be properly declared unless it is US-ASCII or
89 Latin-1. POD input without an "=encoding" command will be assumed
90 to be in Latin-1, and if it's actually in UTF-8, the output will be
91 double-encoded. See perlpod(1) for more information on the
92 "=encoding" command.
93 width
95 The column at which to wrap text on the right-hand side. Defaults
96 to 76.
97 The standard Pod::Simple method parse_file() takes one argument, the
99 file or file handle to read from, and writes output to standard output
100 unless that has been changed with the output_fh() method. See
101 Pod::Simple for the specific details and for other alternative
102 interfaces.
103
105 Bizarre space in item
106 Item called without tag
107 (W) Something has gone wrong in internal "=item" processing. These
108 messages indicate a bug in Pod::Text; you should never see them.
109 Can't open %s for reading: %s
111 (F) Pod::Text was invoked via the compatibility mode pod2text()
112 interface and the input file it was given could not be opened.
113 Invalid quote specification "%s"
115 (F) The quote specification given (the quotes option to the
116 constructor) was invalid. A quote specification must be one, two,
117 or four characters long.
118
120 Encoding handling assumes that PerlIO is available and does not work
121 properly if it isn't. The "utf8" option is therefore not supported
122 unless Perl is built with PerlIO support.
123
125 If Pod::Text is given the "utf8" option, the encoding of its output
126 file handle will be forced to UTF-8 if possible, overriding any
127 existing encoding. This will be done even if the file handle is not
128 created by Pod::Text and was passed in from outside. This maintains
129 consistency regardless of PERL_UNICODE and other settings.
130 If the "utf8" option is not given, the encoding of its output file
132 handle will be forced to the detected encoding of the input POD, which
133 preserves whatever the input text is. This ensures backward
134 compatibility with earlier, pre-Unicode versions of this module,
135 without large numbers of Perl warnings.
136 This is not ideal, but it seems to be the best compromise. If it
138 doesn't work for you, please let me know the details of how it broke.
139
141 This is a replacement for an earlier Pod::Text module written by Tom
142 Christiansen. It has a revamped interface, since it now uses
143 Pod::Simple, but an interface roughly compatible with the old
144 Pod::Text::pod2text() function is still available. Please change to
145 the new calling convention, though.
146 The original Pod::Text contained code to do formatting via termcap
148 sequences, although it wasn't turned on by default and it was
149 problematic to get it to work at all. This rewrite doesn't even try to
150 do that, but a subclass of it does. Look for Pod::Text::Termcap.
151
153 Pod::Simple, Pod::Text::Termcap, perlpod(1), pod2text(1)
154 The current version of this module is always available from its web
156 site at <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/podlators/>. It is also
157 part of the Perl core distribution as of 5.6.0.
158
160 Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>, based very heavily on the original
161 Pod::Text by Tom Christiansen <tchrist@mox.perl.com> and its conversion
162 to Pod::Parser by Brad Appleton <bradapp@enteract.com>. Sean Burke's
163 initial conversion of Pod::Man to use Pod::Simple provided much-needed
164 guidance on how to use Pod::Simple.
165
167 Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009 Russ Allbery
168 <rra@stanford.edu>.
169 This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it
171 under the same terms as Perl itself.
172perl v5.12.4 2011-06-07 Pod::Text(3pm)