pod2text - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text
pod2text [-aclost] [--code] [-i indent] [-q quotes]
[-w width] [input [output ...]]
pod2text -h
pod2text is a front-end for Pod::Text and its subclasses. It uses them
to generate formatted ASCII text from POD source. It can optionally use
either termcap sequences or ANSI color escape sequences to format the text.
input is the file to read for POD source (the POD can be embedded in
code). If input isn't given, it defaults to STDIN. output, if given,
is the file to which to write the formatted output. If output isn't
given, the formatted output is written to STDOUT. Several POD files can be
processed in the same pod2text invocation (saving module load and compile
times) by providing multiple pairs of input and output files on the
command line.
- -a, --alt
-
Use an alternate output format that, among other things, uses a different
heading style and marks
=item entries with a colon in the left margin.
- --code
-
Include any non-POD text from the input file in the output as well. Useful
for viewing code documented with POD blocks with the POD rendered and the
code left intact.
- -c, --color
-
Format the output with ANSI color escape sequences. Using this option
requires that Term::ANSIColor be installed on your system.
- -i indent, --indent=indent
-
Set the number of spaces to indent regular text, and the default indentation
for
=over blocks. Defaults to 4 spaces if this option isn't given.
- -h, --help
-
Print out usage information and exit.
- -l, --loose
-
Print a blank line after a
=head1 heading. Normally, no blank line is
printed after =head1, although one is still printed after =head2,
because this is the expected formatting for manual pages; if you're
formatting arbitrary text documents, using this option is recommended.
- -m width, --left-margin=width, --margin=width
-
The width of the left margin in spaces. Defaults to 0. This is the margin
for all text, including headings, not the amount by which regular text is
indented; for the latter, see -i option.
- -o, --overstrike
-
Format the output with overstruck printing. Bold text is rendered as
character, backspace, character. Italics and file names are rendered as
underscore, backspace, character. Many pagers, such as less, know how
to convert this to bold or underlined text.
- -q quotes, --quotes=quotes
-
Sets the quote marks used to surround C<> text to quotes. If
quotes is a single character, it is used as both the left and right
quote; if quotes is two characters, the first character is used as the
left quote and the second as the right quoted; and if quotes is four
characters, the first two are used as the left quote and the second two as
the right quote.
quotes may also be set to the special value none, in which case no
quote marks are added around C<> text.
- -s, --sentence
-
Assume each sentence ends with two spaces and try to preserve that spacing.
Without this option, all consecutive whitespace in non-verbatim paragraphs
is compressed into a single space.
- -t, --termcap
-
Try to determine the width of the screen and the bold and underline
sequences for the terminal from termcap, and use that information in
formatting the output. Output will be wrapped at two columns less than the
width of your terminal device. Using this option requires that your system
have a termcap file somewhere where Term::Cap can find it and requires that
your system support termios. With this option, the output of pod2text
will contain terminal control sequences for your current terminal type.
- -w, --width=width, -width
-
The column at which to wrap text on the right-hand side. Defaults to 76,
unless -t is given, in which case it's two columns less than the width of
your terminal device.
If pod2text fails with errors, see Pod::Text and Pod::Simple for
information about what those errors might mean. Internally, it can also
produce the following diagnostics:
- -c (--color) requires Term::ANSIColor be installed
-
(F) -c or --color were given, but Term::ANSIColor could not be
loaded.
- Unknown option: %s
-
(F) An unknown command line option was given.
In addition, other Getopt::Long error messages may result from invalid
command-line options.
- COLUMNS
-
If -t is given, pod2text will take the current width of your screen
from this environment variable, if available. It overrides terminal width
information in TERMCAP.
- TERMCAP
-
If -t is given, pod2text will use the contents of this environment
variable if available to determine the correct formatting sequences for your
current terminal device.
Pod::Text, Pod::Text::Color, Pod::Text::Overstrike,
Pod::Text::Termcap, Pod::Simple
The current version of this script is always available from its web site at
http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/podlators/. It is also part of the
Perl core distribution as of 5.6.0.
Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>.
Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006 by Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>.
This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.