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Pod::Simple(3pm)       Perl Programmers Reference Guide       Pod::Simple(3pm)




NAME

       Pod::Simple - framework for parsing Pod


SYNOPSIS

        TODO


DESCRIPTION

       Pod::Simple is a Perl library for parsing text in the Pod ("plain old
       documentation") markup language that is typically used for writing
       documentation for Perl and for Perl modules. The Pod format is
       explained in perlpod; the most common formatter is called "perldoc".

       Be sure to read "ENCODING" if your Pod contains non-ASCII characters.

       Pod formatters can use Pod::Simple to parse Pod documents and render
       them into plain text, HTML, or any number of other formats. Typically,
       such formatters will be subclasses of Pod::Simple, and so they will
       inherit its methods, like "parse_file".  But note that Pod::Simple
       doesn't understand and properly parse Perl itself, so if you have a
       file which contains a Perl program that has a multi-line quoted string
       which has lines that look like pod, Pod::Simple will treat them as pod.
       This can be avoided if the file makes these into indented here
       documents instead.

       If you're reading this document just because you have a Pod-processing
       subclass that you want to use, this document (plus the documentation
       for the subclass) is probably all you need to read.

       If you're reading this document because you want to write a formatter
       subclass, continue reading it and then read Pod::Simple::Subclassing,
       and then possibly even read perlpodspec (some of which is for parser-
       writers, but much of which is notes to formatter-writers).


MAIN METHODS

       "$parser = SomeClass->new();"
           This returns a new parser object, where "SomeClass" is a subclass
           of Pod::Simple.

       "$parser->output_fh( *OUT );"
           This sets the filehandle that $parser's output will be written to.
           You can pass *STDOUT or *STDERR, otherwise you should probably do
           something like this:

               my $outfile = "output.txt";
               open TXTOUT, ">$outfile" or die "Can't write to $outfile: $!";
               $parser->output_fh(*TXTOUT);

           ...before you call one of the "$parser->parse_whatever" methods.

       "$parser->output_string( \$somestring );"
           This sets the string that $parser's output will be sent to, instead
           of any filehandle.

       "$parser->parse_file( $some_filename );"
       "$parser->parse_file( *INPUT_FH );"
           This reads the Pod content of the file (or filehandle) that you
           specify, and processes it with that $parser object, according to
           however $parser's class works, and according to whatever parser
           options you have set up for this $parser object.

       "$parser->parse_string_document( $all_content );"
           This works just like "parse_file" except that it reads the Pod
           content not from a file, but from a string that you have already in
           memory.

       "$parser->parse_lines( ...@lines..., undef );"
           This processes the lines in @lines (where each list item must be a
           defined value, and must contain exactly one line of content -- so
           no items like "foo\nbar" are allowed).  The final "undef" is used
           to indicate the end of document being parsed.

           The other "parser_whatever" methods are meant to be called only
           once per $parser object; but "parse_lines" can be called as many
           times per $parser object as you want, as long as the last call (and
           only the last call) ends with an "undef" value.

       "$parser->content_seen"
           This returns true only if there has been any real content seen for
           this document. Returns false in cases where the document contains
           content, but does not make use of any Pod markup.

       "SomeClass->filter( $filename );"
       "SomeClass->filter( *INPUT_FH );"
       "SomeClass->filter( \$document_content );"
           This is a shortcut method for creating a new parser object, setting
           the output handle to STDOUT, and then processing the specified file
           (or filehandle, or in-memory document). This is handy for one-
           liners like this:

             perl -MPod::Simple::Text -e "Pod::Simple::Text->filter('thingy.pod')"


SECONDARY METHODS

       Some of these methods might be of interest to general users, as well as
       of interest to formatter-writers.

       Note that the general pattern here is that the accessor-methods read
       the attribute's value with "$value = $parser->attribute" and set the
       attribute's value with "$parser->attribute(newvalue)".  For each
       accessor, I typically only mention one syntax or another, based on
       which I think you are actually most likely to use.

       "$parser->parse_characters( SOMEVALUE )"
           The Pod parser normally expects to read octets and to convert those
           octets to characters based on the "=encoding" declaration in the
           Pod source.  Set this option to a true value to indicate that the
           Pod source is already a Perl character stream.  This tells the
           parser to ignore any "=encoding" command and to skip all the code
           paths involving decoding octets.

       "$parser->no_whining( SOMEVALUE )"
           If you set this attribute to a true value, you will suppress the
           parser's complaints about irregularities in the Pod coding. By
           default, this attribute's value is false, meaning that
           irregularities will be reported.

           Note that turning this attribute to true won't suppress one or two
           kinds of complaints about rarely occurring unrecoverable errors.

       "$parser->no_errata_section( SOMEVALUE )"
           If you set this attribute to a true value, you will stop the parser
           from generating a "POD ERRORS" section at the end of the document.
           By default, this attribute's value is false, meaning that an errata
           section will be generated, as necessary.

       "$parser->complain_stderr( SOMEVALUE )"
           If you set this attribute to a true value, it will send reports of
           parsing errors to STDERR. By default, this attribute's value is
           false, meaning that no output is sent to STDERR.

           Setting "complain_stderr" also sets "no_errata_section".

       "$parser->source_filename"
           This returns the filename that this parser object was set to read
           from.

       "$parser->doc_has_started"
           This returns true if $parser has read from a source, and has seen
           Pod content in it.

       "$parser->source_dead"
           This returns true if $parser has read from a source, and come to
           the end of that source.

       "$parser->strip_verbatim_indent( SOMEVALUE )"
           The perlpod spec for a Verbatim paragraph is "It should be
           reproduced exactly...", which means that the whitespace you've used
           to indent your verbatim blocks will be preserved in the output.
           This can be annoying for outputs such as HTML, where that
           whitespace will remain in front of every line. It's an unfortunate
           case where syntax is turned into semantics.

           If the POD you're parsing adheres to a consistent indentation
           policy, you can have such indentation stripped from the beginning
           of every line of your verbatim blocks. This method tells
           Pod::Simple what to strip. For two-space indents, you'd use:

             $parser->strip_verbatim_indent('  ');

           For tab indents, you'd use a tab character:

             $parser->strip_verbatim_indent("\t");

           If the POD is inconsistent about the indentation of verbatim
           blocks, but you have figured out a heuristic to determine how much
           a particular verbatim block is indented, you can pass a code
           reference instead. The code reference will be executed with one
           argument, an array reference of all the lines in the verbatim
           block, and should return the value to be stripped from each line.
           For example, if you decide that you're fine to use the first line
           of the verbatim block to set the standard for indentation of the
           rest of the block, you can look at the first line and return the
           appropriate value, like so:

             $new->strip_verbatim_indent(sub {
                 my $lines = shift;
                 (my $indent = $lines->[0]) =~ s/\S.*//;
                 return $indent;
             });

           If you'd rather treat each line individually, you can do that, too,
           by just transforming them in-place in the code reference and
           returning "undef". Say that you don't want any lines indented. You
           can do something like this:

             $new->strip_verbatim_indent(sub {
                 my $lines = shift;
                 sub { s/^\s+// for @{ $lines },
                 return undef;
             });

       "$parser->expand_verbatim_tabs( n )"
           Default: 8

           If after any stripping of indentation in verbatim blocks, there
           remain tabs, this method call indicates what to do with them.  0
           means leave them as tabs, any other number indicates that each tab
           is to be translated so as to have tab stops every "n" columns.

           This is independent of other methods (except that it operates after
           any verbatim input stripping is done).

           Like the other methods, the input parameter is not checked for
           validity.  "undef" or containing non-digits has the same effect as
           8.


TERTIARY METHODS

       "$parser->abandon_output_fh()"
           Cancel output to the file handle. Any POD read by the $parser is
           not effected.

       "$parser->abandon_output_string()"
           Cancel output to the output string. Any POD read by the $parser is
           not effected.

       "$parser->accept_code( @codes )"
           Alias for accept_codes.

       "$parser->accept_codes( @codes )"
           Allows $parser to accept a list of "Formatting Codes" in perlpod.
           This can be used to implement user-defined codes.

       "$parser->accept_directive_as_data( @directives )"
           Allows $parser to accept a list of directives for data paragraphs.
           A directive is the label of a "Command Paragraph" in perlpod. A
           data paragraph is one delimited by "=begin/=for/=end" directives.
           This can be used to implement user-defined directives.

       "$parser->accept_directive_as_processed( @directives )"
           Allows $parser to accept a list of directives for processed
           paragraphs. A directive is the label of a "Command Paragraph" in
           perlpod. A processed paragraph is also known as "Ordinary
           Paragraph" in perlpod. This can be used to implement user-defined
           directives.

       "$parser->accept_directive_as_verbatim( @directives )"
           Allows $parser to accept a list of directives for "Verbatim
           Paragraph" in perlpod. A directive is the label of a "Command
           Paragraph" in perlpod. This can be used to implement user-defined
           directives.

       "$parser->accept_target( @targets )"
           Alias for accept_targets.

       "$parser->accept_target_as_text( @targets )"
           Alias for accept_targets_as_text.

       "$parser->accept_targets( @targets )"
           Accepts targets for "=begin/=for/=end" sections of the POD.

       "$parser->accept_targets_as_text( @targets )"
           Accepts targets for "=begin/=for/=end" sections that should be
           parsed as POD. For details, see "About Data Paragraphs" in
           perlpodspec.

       "$parser->any_errata_seen()"
           Used to check if any errata was seen.

           Example:

             die "too many errors\n" if $parser->any_errata_seen();

       "$parser->errata_seen()"
           Returns a hash reference of all errata seen, both whines and
           screams. The hash reference's keys are the line number and the
           value is an array reference of the errors for that line.

           Example:

             if ( $parser->any_errata_seen() ) {
                $logger->log( $parser->errata_seen() );
             }

       "$parser->detected_encoding()"
           Return the encoding corresponding to "=encoding", but only if the
           encoding was recognized and handled.

       "$parser->encoding()"
           Return encoding of the document, even if the encoding is not
           correctly handled.

       "$parser->parse_from_file( $source, $to )"
           Parses from $source file to $to file. Similar to "parse_from_file"
           in Pod::Parser.

       "$parser->scream( @error_messages )"
           Log an error that can't be ignored.

       "$parser->unaccept_code( @codes )"
           Alias for unaccept_codes.

       "$parser->unaccept_codes( @codes )"
           Removes @codes as valid codes for the parse.

       "$parser->unaccept_directive( @directives )"
           Alias for unaccept_directives.

       "$parser->unaccept_directives( @directives )"
           Removes @directives as valid directives for the parse.

       "$parser->unaccept_target( @targets )"
           Alias for unaccept_targets.

       "$parser->unaccept_targets( @targets )"
           Removes @targets as valid targets for the parse.

       "$parser->version_report()"
           Returns a string describing the version.

       "$parser->whine( @error_messages )"
           Log an error unless "$parser->no_whining( TRUE );".


ENCODING

       The Pod::Simple parser expects to read octets.  The parser will decode
       the octets into Perl's internal character string representation using
       the value of the "=encoding" declaration in the POD source.

       If the POD source does not include an "=encoding" declaration, the
       parser will attempt to guess the encoding (selecting one of UTF-8 or CP
       1252) by examining the first non-ASCII bytes and applying the heuristic
       described in perlpodspec.  (If the POD source contains only ASCII
       bytes, the encoding is assumed to be ASCII.)

       If you set the "parse_characters" option to a true value the parser
       will expect characters rather than octets; will ignore any "=encoding";
       and will make no attempt to decode the input.


SEE ALSO

       Pod::Simple::Subclassing(3)

       perlpod(1)

       perlpodspec(1)

       Pod::Escapes(3)

       perldoc(1)


SUPPORT

       Questions or discussion about POD and Pod::Simple should be sent to the
       pod-people@perl.org mail list. Send an empty email to
       pod-people-subscribe@perl.org to subscribe.

       This module is managed in an open GitHub repository,
       <https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple/>. Feel free to fork and
       contribute, or to clone <git://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple.git> and
       send patches!

       Please use <https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple/issues/new> to file
       a bug report.


COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMERS

       Copyright (c) 2002 Sean M. Burke.

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the same terms as Perl itself.

       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
       without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of
       merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.


AUTHOR

       Pod::Simple was created by Sean M. Burke <sburke@cpan.org>.  But don't
       bother him, he's retired.

       Pod::Simple is maintained by:

       o   Allison Randal "allison@perl.org"

       o   Hans Dieter Pearcey "hdp@cpan.org"

       o   David E. Wheeler "dwheeler@cpan.org"

       o   Karl Williamson "khw@cpan.org"

       Documentation has been contributed by:

       o   Gabor Szabo "szabgab@gmail.com"

       o   Shawn H Corey  "SHCOREY at cpan.org"



perl v5.34.0                      2020-06-14                  Pod::Simple(3pm)

perl 5.34.0 - Generated Thu Mar 3 18:30:59 CST 2022
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