1Pod::Simple::Search(3)User Contributed Perl DocumentationPod::Simple::Search(3)
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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->is_case_insensitive( true-or-false );
131 Pod::Simple::Search will by default internally make an assumption
132 based on the underlying filesystem where the class file is found
133 whether it is case insensitive or not.
134 If it is determined to be case insensitive, during survey() it may
136 skip pod files/modules that happen to be equal to names it's
137 already seen, ignoring case.
138 However, it's possible to have distinct files in different
140 directories that intentionally has the same name, just differing in
141 case, that should be reported. Hence, you may force the behavior by
142 setting this to true or false.
143 $search->limit_re( some-regxp );
145 Setting this attribute (to a value that's a regexp) means that you
146 want to limit the results just to items whose podnames match the
147 given regexp. Normally this option is not needed, and the more
148 efficient "limit_glob" attribute is used instead.
149 $search->dir_prefix( some-string-value );
151 Setting this attribute to a string value means that the searches
152 should begin in the specified subdirectory name (like "Pod" or
153 "File::Find", also expressible as "File/Find"). For example, the
154 search option "$search->limit_glob("File::Find::R*")" is the same
155 as the combination of the search options
156 "$search->limit_re("^File::Find::R") -> dir_prefix("File::Find")".
157 Normally you don't need to know about the "dir_prefix" option, but
159 I include it in case it might prove useful for someone somewhere.
160 (Implementationally, searching with limit_glob ends up setting
162 limit_re and usually dir_prefix.)
163 $search->progress( some-progress-object );
165 If you set a value for this attribute, the value is expected to be
166 an object (probably of a class that you define) that has a "reach"
167 method and a "done" method. This is meant for reporting progress
168 during the search, if you don't want to use a simple callback.
169 Normally you don't need to know about the "progress" option, but I
171 include it in case it might prove useful for someone somewhere.
172 While a search is in progress, the progress object's "reach" and
174 "done" methods are called like this:
175 # Every time a file is being scanned for pod:
177 $progress->reach($count, "Scanning $file"); ++$count;
178 # And then at the end of the search:
180 $progress->done("Noted $count Pod files total");
181 Internally, we often set this to an object of class
183 Pod::Simple::Progress. That class is probably undocumented, but
184 you may wish to look at its source.
185 $name2path = $self->name2path;
187 This attribute is not a search parameter, but is used to report the
188 result of "survey" method, as discussed in the next section.
189 $path2name = $self->path2name;
191 This attribute is not a search parameter, but is used to report the
192 result of "survey" method, as discussed in the next section.
193
195 Once you've actually set any options you want (if any), you can go
196 ahead and use the following methods to search for Pod files in
197 particular ways.
198 "$search->survey( @directories )"
200 The method "survey" searches for POD documents in a given set of files
201 and/or directories. This runs the search according to the various
202 options set by the accessors above. (For example, if the "inc"
203 attribute is on, as it is by default, then the perl @INC directories
204 are implicitly added to the list of directories (if any) that you
205 specify.)
206 The return value of "survey" is two hashes:
208 "name2path"
210 A hash that maps from each pod-name to the filespec (like
211 "Stuff::Thing" => "/whatever/plib/Stuff/Thing.pm")
212 "path2name"
214 A hash that maps from each Pod filespec to its pod-name (like
215 "/whatever/plib/Stuff/Thing.pm" => "Stuff::Thing")
216 Besides saving these hashes as the hashref attributes "name2path" and
218 "path2name", calling this function also returns these hashrefs. In
219 list context, the return value of "$search->survey" is the list
220 "(\%name2path, \%path2name)". In scalar context, the return value is
221 "\%name2path". Or you can just call this in void context.
222 Regardless of calling context, calling "survey" saves its results in
224 its "name2path" and "path2name" attributes.
225 E.g., when searching in $HOME/perl5lib, the file
227 $HOME/perl5lib/MyModule.pm would get the POD name MyModule, whereas
228 $HOME/perl5lib/Myclass/Subclass.pm would be Myclass::Subclass. The name
229 information can be used for POD translators.
230 Only text files containing at least one valid POD command are found.
232 In verbose mode, a warning is printed if shadows are found (i.e., more
234 than one POD file with the same POD name is found, e.g. CPAN.pm in
235 different directories). This usually indicates duplicate occurrences
236 of modules in the @INC search path, which is occasionally inadvertent
237 (but is often simply a case of a user's path dir having a more recent
238 version than the system's general path dirs in general.)
239 The options to this argument is a list of either directories that are
241 searched recursively, or files. (Usually you wouldn't specify files,
242 but just dirs.) Or you can just specify an empty-list, as in
243 $name2path; with the "inc" option on, as it is by default.
244 The POD names of files are the plain basenames with any Perl-like
246 extension (.pm, .pl, .pod) stripped, and path separators replaced by
247 "::"'s.
248 Calling Pod::Simple::Search->search(...) is short for
250 Pod::Simple::Search->new->search(...). That is, a throwaway object
251 with default attribute values is used.
252 "$search->simplify_name( $str )"
254 The method simplify_name is equivalent to basename, but also strips
255 Perl-like extensions (.pm, .pl, .pod) and extensions like .bat, .cmd on
256 Win32 and OS/2, or .com on VMS, respectively.
257 "$search->find( $pod )"
259 "$search->find( $pod, @search_dirs )"
260 Returns the location of a Pod file, given a Pod/module/script name
261 (like "Foo::Bar" or "perlvar" or "perldoc"), and an idea of what
262 files/directories to look in. It searches according to the various
263 options set by the accessors above. (For example, if the "inc"
264 attribute is on, as it is by default, then the perl @INC directories
265 are implicitly added to the list of directories (if any) that you
266 specify.)
267 This returns the full path of the first occurrence to the file.
269 Package names (eg 'A::B') are automatically converted to directory
270 names in the selected directory. Additionally, '.pm', '.pl' and '.pod'
271 are automatically appended to the search as required. (So, for
272 example, under Unix, "A::B" is converted to "somedir/A/B.pm",
273 "somedir/A/B.pod", or "somedir/A/B.pl", as appropriate.)
274 If no such Pod file is found, this method returns undef.
276 If any of the given search directories contains a pod/ subdirectory,
278 then it is searched. (That's how we manage to find perlfunc, for
279 example, which is usually in pod/perlfunc in most Perl dists.)
280 The "verbose" and "inc" attributes influence the behavior of this
282 search; notably, "inc", if true, adds @INC and also
283 $Config::Config{'scriptdir'} to the list of directories to search.
284 It is common to simply say "$filename = Pod::Simple::Search-> new
286 ->find("perlvar")" so that just the @INC (well, and scriptdir)
287 directories are searched. (This happens because the "inc" attribute is
288 true by default.)
289 Calling Pod::Simple::Search->find(...) is short for
291 Pod::Simple::Search->new->find(...). That is, a throwaway object with
292 default attribute values is used.
293 "$self->contains_pod( $file )"
295 Returns true if the supplied filename (not POD module) contains some
296 Pod documentation.
297
299 Questions or discussion about POD and Pod::Simple should be sent to the
300 pod-people@perl.org mail list. Send an empty email to
301 pod-people-subscribe@perl.org to subscribe.
302 This module is managed in an open GitHub repository,
304 <https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple/>. Feel free to fork and
305 contribute, or to clone <https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple.git>
306 and send patches!
307 Patches against Pod::Simple are welcome. Please send bug reports to
309 <bug-pod-simple@rt.cpan.org>.
310
312 Copyright (c) 2002 Sean M. Burke.
313 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
315 under the same terms as Perl itself.
316 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
318 without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of
319 merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
320
322 Pod::Simple was created by Sean M. Burke <sburke@cpan.org> with code
323 borrowed from Marek Rouchal's Pod::Find, which in turn heavily borrowed
324 code from Nick Ing-Simmons' "PodToHtml".
325 But don't bother him, he's retired.
327 Pod::Simple is maintained by:
329 • Allison Randal "allison@perl.org"
331 • Hans Dieter Pearcey "hdp@cpan.org"
333 • David E. Wheeler "dwheeler@cpan.org"
335perl v5.38.0 2023-07-21 Pod::Simple::Search(3)