pod2man
pod2man - translate embedded Perl pod directives into man pages
pod2man
[ --section=manext ]
[ --release=relpatch ]
[ --center=string ]
[ --date=string ]
[ --fixed=font ]
[ --official ]
inputfile
pod2man converts its input file containing embedded pod directives (see
the perlpod manpage
) into nroff source suitable for viewing with nroff(1) or
troff(1) using the man(7) macro set.
Besides the obvious pod conversions, pod2man also takes care of
func(), func(n), and simple variable references like $foo or @bar so
you don't have to use code escapes for them; complex expressions like
$fred{'stuff'} will still need to be escaped, though. Other nagging
little roffish things that it catches include translating the minus in
something like foo-bar, making a long dash--like this--into a real em
dash, fixing up ``paired quotes'', putting a little space after the
parens in something like func(), making C++ and PI look right, making
double underbars have a little tiny space between them, making ALLCAPS
a teeny bit smaller in troff(1), and escaping backslashes so you don't
have to.
-
center
-
Set the centered header to a specific string. The default is
``User Contributed Perl Documentation'', unless the
--official flag is
given, in which case the default is ``Perl Programmers Reference Guide''.
-
date
-
Set the left-hand footer string to this value. By default,
the modification date of the input file will be used.
-
fixed
-
The fixed font to use for code refs. Defaults to CW.
-
official
-
Set the default header to indicate that this page is of
the standard release in case
--center is not given.
-
release
-
Set the centered footer. By default, this is the current
perl release.
-
section
-
Set the section for the
.TH macro. The standard conventions on
sections are to use 1 for user commands, 2 for system calls, 3 for
functions, 4 for devices, 5 for file formats, 6 for games, 7 for
miscellaneous information, and 8 for administrator commands. This works
best if you put your Perl man pages in a separate tree, like
/usr/local/perl/man/. By default, section 1 will be used
unless the file ends in .pm in which case section 3 will be selected.
.
For those not sure of the proper layout of a man page, here's
an example of the skeleton of a proper man page. Head of the
major headers should be setout as a =head1 directive, and
are historically written in the rather startling ALL UPPER CASE
format, although this is not mandatory.
Minor headers may be included using =head2, and are
typically in mixed case.
-
NAME
-
Mandatory section; should be a comma-separated list of programs or
functions documented by this podpage, such as:
<![CDATA[
foo, bar - programs to do something
]]>
-
SYNOPSIS
-
A short usage summary for programs and functions, which
may someday be deemed mandatory.
-
DESCRIPTION
-
Long drawn out discussion of the program. It's a good idea to break this
up into subsections using the
=head2 directives, like
<![CDATA[
=head2 A Sample Subection
=head2 Yet Another Sample Subection
]]>
-
OPTIONS
-
Some people make this separate from the description.
-
RETURN VALUE
-
What the program or function returns if successful.
-
ERRORS
-
Exceptions, return codes, exit stati, and errno settings.
-
EXAMPLES
-
Give some example uses of the program.
-
ENVIRONMENT
-
Envariables this program might care about.
-
FILES
-
All files used by the program. You should probably use the F<>
for these.
-
SEE ALSO
-
Other man pages to check out, like man(1), man(7), makewhatis(8), or catman(8).
-
NOTES
-
Miscellaneous commentary.
-
CAVEATS
-
Things to take special care with; sometimes called WARNINGS.
-
DIAGNOSTICS
-
All possible messages the program can print out--and
what they mean.
-
BUGS
-
Things that are broken or just don't work quite right.
-
RESTRICTIONS
-
Bugs you don't plan to fix :-)
-
AUTHOR
-
Who wrote it (or AUTHORS if multiple).
-
HISTORY
-
Programs derived from other sources sometimes have this, or
you might keep a modification long here.
.
<![CDATA[
pod2man program > program.1
pod2man some_module.pm > /usr/perl/man/man3/some_module.3
pod2man --section=7 note.pod > note.7
]]>
The following diagnostics are generated by pod2man. Items
marked ``(W)'' are non-fatal, whereas the ``(F)'' errors will cause
pod2man to immediately exit with a non-zero status.
-
bad option in paragraph %d of %s: ``
%s
'' should be [
%s
]<
%s
>
-
(W) If you start include an option, you should set it off
as bold, italic, or code.
-
can't open %s:
%s
-
(F) The input file wasn't available for the given reason.
-
high bit char in input stream
-
(W) You can't use high-bit characters in the input stream,
because the translator uses them for its own nefarious purposes.
Use an HTML entity in angle brackets instead.
-
Improper man page - no dash in NAME header in paragraph %d of
%s
-
(W) The NAME header did not have an isolated dash in it. This is
considered important.
-
Invalid man page - no NAME line in
%s
-
(F) You did not include a NAME header, which is essential.
-
roff font should be 1 or 2 chars, not `
%s
' (F)
-
(F) The font specified with the
--fixed option was not
a one- or two-digit roff font.
-
%s
is missing required section:
%s
-
(W) Required sections include NAME, DESCRIPTION, and if you're
using a section starting with a 3, also a SYNOPSIS. Actually,
not having a NAME is a fatal.
-
Unknown escape:
%s
in
%s
-
(W) An unknown HTML entity (probably for an 8-bit character) was given via
a
<> directive. Besides amp, lt, gt, and quot, recognized
entities are Aacute, aacute, Acirc, acirc, AElig, aelig, Agrave, agrave,
Aring, aring, Atilde, atilde, Auml, auml, Ccedil, ccedil, Eacute, eacute,
Ecirc, ecirc, Egrave, egrave, ETH, eth, Euml, euml, Iacute, iacute, Icirc,
icirc, Igrave, igrave, Iuml, iuml, Ntilde, ntilde, Oacute, oacute, Ocirc,
ocirc, Ograve, ograve, Oslash, oslash, Otilde, otilde, Ouml, ouml, szlig,
THORN, thorn, Uacute, uacute, Ucirc, ucirc, Ugrave, ugrave, Uuml, uuml,
Yacute, yacute, and yuml.
-
Unmatched =back
-
(W) You have a
=back without a corresponding =over.
-
Unrecognized pod directive:
%s
-
(W) You specified a pod directive that isn't in the known list of
=head1, =head2, =item, =over, =back, or =cut.
.
If you would like to print out a lot of man page continuously, you
probably want to set the C and D registers to set contiguous page
numbering and even/odd paging, at least one some versions of man(7).
Settting the F register will get you some additional experimental
indexing:
<![CDATA[
troff -man -rC1 -rD1 -rF1 perl.1 perldata.1 perlsyn.1 ...
]]>
The indexing merely outputs messages via .tm for each
major page, section, subsection, item, and any X<>
directives.
You shouldn't use 8-bit characters in the input stream, as these
will be used by the translator.
The =over and =back directives don't really work right. They
take absolute positions instead of offsets, don't nest well, and
making people count is suboptimal in any event.
Original prototype by Larry Wall, but so massively hacked over by
Tom Christiansen such that Larry probably doesn't recognize it anymore.