README
1 podlators 4.14
2 (format POD source into various output formats)
3 Maintained by Russ Allbery <rra@cpan.org>
4
5 Copyright 1999-2010, 2012-2020 Russ Allbery <rra@cpan.org>. This
6 software is distributed under the same terms as Perl itself. Please see
7 the section LICENSE below for more information.
8
9BLURB
10
11 podlators contains Pod::Man and Pod::Text modules which convert POD
12 input to *roff source output, suitable for man pages, or plain text. It
13 also includes several subclasses of Pod::Text for formatted output to
14 terminals with various capabilities. It is the source package for the
15 Pod::Man and Pod::Text modules included with Perl.
16
17DESCRIPTION
18
19 POD is the Plain Old Documentation format, the documentation language
20 used for all of Perl's documentation. I learned it to document Perl
21 modules, started using it for Perl scripts as well, and discovered it
22 was the most convenient way I've found to write program documentation.
23 It's extremely simple, well-designed for writing Unix manual pages (and
24 I'm a traditionalist who thinks that any program should have a regular
25 manual page), and easily readable in the raw format by humans.
26
27 The translators into text and nroff (for manual pages) included in the
28 Perl distribution had various bugs, however, and used their own ad hoc
29 parsers, so when I started running into those bugs and when a new
30 generic parser (Pod::Parser) was written, I decided to rewrite the two
31 translators that I use the most and fix the bugs that were bothering me.
32 This package is the result.
33
34 podlators contains two main modules, Pod::Man and Pod::Text. The former
35 converts POD into nroff/troff source and the latter into plain text
36 (with various options controlling some of the formatting). There are
37 also several subclasses of Pod::Text for generating slightly formatted
38 text using color or other terminal control escapes, and a general
39 utility module, Pod::ParseLink, for parsing the POD L<> formatting
40 sequences. Also included in this package are the pod2text and pod2man
41 driver scripts.
42
43 Both Pod::Text and Pod::Man provide a variety of options for fine-tuning
44 their output. Pod::Man also tries to massage input text where
45 appropriate to produce better output when run through nroff or troff,
46 such as distinguishing between different types of hyphens and using
47 slightly smaller case for acronyms.
48
49 As of Perl 5.6.0, my implementation was included in Perl core, and each
50 release of Perl will have the at-the-time most current version of
51 podlators included. You therefore only need to install this package
52 yourself if you need a newer version than came with Perl (to get some
53 bug fixes, for example).
54
55REQUIREMENTS
56
57 This module requires Perl 5.8.0 or later.
58
59 Both Pod::Man and Pod::Text are built on Pod::Simple, which handles the
60 basic POD parsing and character set conversion. Pod::Simple 3.06 or
61 later is required (and Pod::Simple 3.07 is recommended). It is
62 available from CPAN and part of Perl core as of 5.10.0.
63
64 The troff/nroff generated by Pod::Man should be compatible with any
65 troff or nroff implementation with the -man macro set. It is primarily
66 tested by me under GNU groff, but Perl users send bug reports for a wide
67 variety of implementations and Pod::Man is used to generate all of
68 Perl's own manual pages, so most of the bugs have been weeded out.
69
70 The following additional Perl modules will be used by the test suite if
71 present:
72
73 * Test::MinimumVersion
74 * Test::Pod
75 * Test::Spelling
76 * Test::Strict
77 * Test::Synopsis
78
79 All are available on CPAN. Those tests will be skipped if the modules
80 are not available.
81
82BUILDING AND INSTALLATION
83
84 podlators uses ExtUtils::MakeMaker and can be installed using the same
85 process as any other ExtUtils::MakeMaker module:
86
87 perl Makefile.PL
88 make
89 make install
90
91 You will have to run the last command as root unless you're installing
92 into a local Perl module tree in your home directory.
93
94TESTING
95
96 podlators comes with a test suite, which you can run after building
97 with:
98
99 make test
100
101 If a test fails, you can run a single test with verbose output via:
102
103 prove -vb <path-to-test>
104
105 To enable tests that don't detect functionality problems but are used to
106 sanity-check the release, set the environment variable RELEASE_TESTING
107 to a true value. To enable tests that may be sensitive to the local
108 environment or that produce a lot of false positives without uncovering
109 many problems, set the environment variable AUTHOR_TESTING to a true
110 value.
111
112SUPPORT
113
114 The podlators web page at:
115
116 https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/podlators/
117
118 will always have the current version of this package, the current
119 documentation, and pointers to any additional resources.
120
121 For bug tracking, use the CPAN bug tracker at:
122
123 https://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Name=podlators
124
125 However, please be aware that I tend to be extremely busy and work
126 projects often take priority. I'll save your report and get to it as
127 soon as I can, but it may take me a couple of months.
128
129SOURCE REPOSITORY
130
131 podlators is maintained using Git. You can access the current source on
132 GitHub at:
133
134 https://github.com/rra/podlators
135
136 or by cloning the repository at:
137
138 https://git.eyrie.org/git/perl/podlators.git
139
140 or view the repository via the web at:
141
142 https://git.eyrie.org/?p=perl/podlators.git
143
144 The eyrie.org repository is the canonical one, maintained by the author,
145 but using GitHub is probably more convenient for most purposes. Pull
146 requests are gratefully reviewed and normally accepted. It's probably
147 better to use the CPAN bug tracker than GitHub issues, though, to keep
148 all Perl module issues in the same place.
149
150LICENSE
151
152 The podlators package as a whole is covered by the following copyright
153 statement and license:
154
155 Copyright 1999-2010, 2012-2020 Russ Allbery <rra@cpan.org>
156
157 This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify
158 it under the same terms as Perl itself. This means that you may
159 choose between the two licenses that Perl is released under: the GNU
160 GPL and the Artistic License. Please see your Perl distribution for
161 the details and copies of the licenses.
162
163 Some files in this distribution are individually released under
164 different licenses, all of which are compatible with the above general
165 package license but which may require preservation of additional
166 notices. All required notices, and detailed information about the
167 licensing of each file, are recorded in the LICENSE file.
168
169 Files covered by a license with an assigned SPDX License Identifier
170 include SPDX-License-Identifier tags to enable automated processing of
171 license information. See https://spdx.org/licenses/ for more
172 information.
173
174 For any copyright range specified by files in this package as YYYY-ZZZZ,
175 the range specifies every single year in that closed interval.
176
README.md
1# podlators 4.14
2
3[](https://travis-ci.org/rra/podlators)
5[](https://metacpan.org/release/podlators)
7
8Copyright 1999-2010, 2012-2020 Russ Allbery <rra@cpan.org>. This software
9is distributed under the same terms as Perl itself. Please see the
10section [License](#license) below for more information.
11
12## Blurb
13
14podlators contains Pod::Man and Pod::Text modules which convert POD input
15to *roff source output, suitable for man pages, or plain text. It also
16includes several subclasses of Pod::Text for formatted output to terminals
17with various capabilities. It is the source package for the Pod::Man and
18Pod::Text modules included with Perl.
19
20## Description
21
22POD is the Plain Old Documentation format, the documentation language used
23for all of Perl's documentation. I learned it to document Perl modules,
24started using it for Perl scripts as well, and discovered it was the most
25convenient way I've found to write program documentation. It's extremely
26simple, well-designed for writing Unix manual pages (and I'm a
27traditionalist who thinks that any program should have a regular manual
28page), and easily readable in the raw format by humans.
29
30The translators into text and nroff (for manual pages) included in the
31Perl distribution had various bugs, however, and used their own ad hoc
32parsers, so when I started running into those bugs and when a new generic
33parser (Pod::Parser) was written, I decided to rewrite the two translators
34that I use the most and fix the bugs that were bothering me. This package
35is the result.
36
37podlators contains two main modules, Pod::Man and Pod::Text. The former
38converts POD into nroff/troff source and the latter into plain text (with
39various options controlling some of the formatting). There are also
40several subclasses of Pod::Text for generating slightly formatted text
41using color or other terminal control escapes, and a general utility
42module, Pod::ParseLink, for parsing the POD `L<>` formatting sequences.
43Also included in this package are the `pod2text` and `pod2man` driver
44scripts.
45
46Both Pod::Text and Pod::Man provide a variety of options for fine-tuning
47their output. Pod::Man also tries to massage input text where appropriate
48to produce better output when run through nroff or troff, such as
49distinguishing between different types of hyphens and using slightly
50smaller case for acronyms.
51
52As of Perl 5.6.0, my implementation was included in Perl core, and each
53release of Perl will have the at-the-time most current version of
54podlators included. You therefore only need to install this package
55yourself if you need a newer version than came with Perl (to get some bug
56fixes, for example).
57
58## Requirements
59
60This module requires Perl 5.8.0 or later.
61
62Both Pod::Man and Pod::Text are built on Pod::Simple, which handles the
63basic POD parsing and character set conversion. Pod::Simple 3.06 or later
64is required (and Pod::Simple 3.07 is recommended). It is available from
65CPAN and part of Perl core as of 5.10.0.
66
67The troff/nroff generated by Pod::Man should be compatible with any troff
68or nroff implementation with the `-man` macro set. It is primarily tested
69by me under GNU groff, but Perl users send bug reports for a wide variety
70of implementations and Pod::Man is used to generate all of Perl's own
71manual pages, so most of the bugs have been weeded out.
72
73The following additional Perl modules will be used by the test suite if
74present:
75
76* Test::MinimumVersion
77* Test::Pod
78* Test::Spelling
79* Test::Strict
80* Test::Synopsis
81
82All are available on CPAN. Those tests will be skipped if the modules are
83not available.
84
85## Building and Installation
86
87podlators uses ExtUtils::MakeMaker and can be installed using the same
88process as any other ExtUtils::MakeMaker module:
89
90```
91 perl Makefile.PL
92 make
93 make install
94```
95
96You'll probably need to do the last as root unless you're installing into
97a local Perl module tree in your home directory.
98
99## Testing
100
101podlators comes with a test suite, which you can run after building with:
102
103```
104 make test
105```
106
107If a test vails, you can run a single test with verbose output via:
108
109```
110 prove -vb <path-to-test>
111```
112
113To enable tests that don't detect functionality problems but are used to
114sanity-check the release, set the environment variable `RELEASE_TESTING`
115to a true value. To enable tests that may be sensitive to the local
116environment or that produce a lot of false positives without uncovering
117many problems, set the environment variable `AUTHOR_TESTING` to a true
118value.
119
120## Support
121
122The [podlators web page](https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/podlators/)
123will always have the current version of this package, the current
124documentation, and pointers to any additional resources.
125
126For bug tracking, use the [CPAN bug
127tracker](https://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Name=podlators). However,
128please be aware that I tend to be extremely busy and work projects often
129take priority. I'll save your report and get to it as soon as I can, but
130it may take me a couple of months.
131
132## Source Repository
133
134podlators is maintained using Git. You can access the current source on
135[GitHub](https://github.com/rra/podlators) or by cloning the repository
136at:
137
138https://git.eyrie.org/git/perl/podlators.git
139
140or [view the repository on the
141web](https://git.eyrie.org/?p=perl/podlators.git).
142
143The eyrie.org repository is the canonical one, maintained by the author,
144but using GitHub is probably more convenient for most purposes. Pull
145requests are gratefully reviewed and normally accepted. It's probably
146better to use the CPAN bug tracker than GitHub issues, though, to keep all
147Perl module issues in the same place.
148
149## License
150
151The podlators package as a whole is covered by the following copyright
152statement and license:
153
154> Copyright 1999-2010, 2012-2020
155> Russ Allbery <rra@cpan.org>
156>
157> This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it
158> under the same terms as Perl itself. This means that you may choose
159> between the two licenses that Perl is released under: the GNU GPL and the
160> Artistic License. Please see your Perl distribution for the details and
161> copies of the licenses.
162
163Some files in this distribution are individually released under different
164licenses, all of which are compatible with the above general package
165license but which may require preservation of additional notices. All
166required notices, and detailed information about the licensing of each
167file, are recorded in the LICENSE file.
168
169Files covered by a license with an assigned SPDX License Identifier
170include SPDX-License-Identifier tags to enable automated processing of
171license information. See https://spdx.org/licenses/ for more information.
172
173For any copyright range specified by files in this package as YYYY-ZZZZ,
174the range specifies every single year in that closed interval.
175
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