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1 | |
2 | =head1 NAME | |
3 | ||
4 | perldoc - Look up Perl documentation in Pod format. | |
5 | ||
6 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
7 | ||
8 | B<perldoc> [B<-h>] [B<-v>] [B<-t>] [B<-u>] [B<-m>] [B<-l>] [B<-F>] | |
9 | [B<-i>] [B<-V>] [B<-T>] [B<-r>] | |
10 | [B<-dI<destination_file>>] | |
11 | [B<-oI<formatname>>] | |
12 | [B<-MI<FormatterClassName>>] | |
13 | [B<-wI<formatteroption:value>>] | |
14 | [B<-n>I<nroff-replacement>] | |
15 | [B<-X>] | |
faceb03c | 16 | [B<-L> I<language_code>] |
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17 | PageName|ModuleName|ProgramName |
18 | ||
19 | B<perldoc> B<-f> BuiltinFunction | |
20 | ||
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21 | B<perldoc> B<-L> it B<-f> BuiltinFunction |
22 | ||
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23 | B<perldoc> B<-q> FAQ Keyword |
24 | ||
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25 | B<perldoc> B<-L> fr B<-q> FAQ Keyword |
26 | ||
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27 | See below for more description of the switches. |
28 | ||
29 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
30 | ||
31 | I<perldoc> looks up a piece of documentation in .pod format that is embedded | |
32 | in the perl installation tree or in a perl script, and displays it via | |
33 | C<pod2man | nroff -man | $PAGER>. (In addition, if running under HP-UX, | |
34 | C<col -x> will be used.) This is primarily used for the documentation for | |
35 | the perl library modules. | |
36 | ||
37 | Your system may also have man pages installed for those modules, in | |
38 | which case you can probably just use the man(1) command. | |
39 | ||
40 | If you are looking for a table of contents to the Perl library modules | |
41 | documentation, see the L<perltoc> page. | |
42 | ||
43 | =head1 OPTIONS | |
44 | ||
45 | =over 5 | |
46 | ||
47 | =item B<-h> | |
48 | ||
49 | Prints out a brief B<h>elp message. | |
50 | ||
51 | =item B<-v> | |
52 | ||
53 | Describes search for the item in detail (B<v>erbosely). | |
54 | ||
55 | =item B<-t> | |
56 | ||
57 | Display docs using plain B<t>ext converter, instead of nroff. This may be faster, | |
58 | but it probably won't look as nice. | |
59 | ||
60 | =item B<-u> | |
61 | ||
62 | Skip the real Pod formatting, and just show the raw Pod source (B<U>nformatted) | |
63 | ||
64 | =item B<-m> I<module> | |
65 | ||
66 | Display the entire module: both code and unformatted pod documentation. | |
67 | This may be useful if the docs don't explain a function in the detail | |
68 | you need, and you'd like to inspect the code directly; perldoc will find | |
69 | the file for you and simply hand it off for display. | |
70 | ||
71 | =item B<-l> | |
72 | ||
73 | Display onB<l>y the file name of the module found. | |
74 | ||
75 | =item B<-F> | |
76 | ||
77 | Consider arguments as file names; no search in directories will be performed. | |
78 | ||
79 | =item B<-f> I<perlfunc> | |
80 | ||
81 | The B<-f> option followed by the name of a perl built in function will | |
82 | extract the documentation of this function from L<perlfunc>. | |
83 | ||
84 | Example: | |
85 | ||
86 | perldoc -f sprintf | |
87 | ||
88 | =item B<-q> I<perlfaq-search-regexp> | |
89 | ||
90 | The B<-q> option takes a regular expression as an argument. It will search | |
91 | the B<q>uestion headings in perlfaq[1-9] and print the entries matching | |
92 | the regular expression. Example: C<perldoc -q shuffle> | |
93 | ||
94 | =item B<-T> | |
95 | ||
96 | This specifies that the output is not to be sent to a pager, but is to | |
97 | be sent right to STDOUT. | |
98 | ||
99 | =item B<-d> I<destination-filename> | |
100 | ||
101 | This specifies that the output is to be sent neither to a pager nor | |
102 | to STDOUT, but is to be saved to the specified filename. Example: | |
103 | C<perldoc -oLaTeX -dtextwrapdocs.tex Text::Wrap> | |
104 | ||
105 | =item B<-o> I<output-formatname> | |
106 | ||
107 | This specifies that you want Perldoc to try using a Pod-formatting | |
108 | class for the output format that you specify. For example: | |
109 | C<-oman>. This is actually just a wrapper around the C<-M> switch; | |
110 | using C<-oI<formatname>> just looks for a loadable class by adding | |
111 | that format name (with different capitalizations) to the end of | |
112 | different classname prefixes. | |
113 | ||
114 | For example, C<-oLaTeX> currently tries all of the following classes: | |
115 | Pod::Perldoc::ToLaTeX Pod::Perldoc::Tolatex Pod::Perldoc::ToLatex | |
116 | Pod::Perldoc::ToLATEX Pod::Simple::LaTeX Pod::Simple::latex | |
117 | Pod::Simple::Latex Pod::Simple::LATEX Pod::LaTeX Pod::latex Pod::Latex | |
118 | Pod::LATEX. | |
119 | ||
120 | =item B<-M> I<module-name> | |
121 | ||
122 | This specifies the module that you want to try using for formatting the | |
254c2b64 | 123 | pod. The class must at least provide a C<parse_from_file> method. |
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124 | For example: C<perldoc -MPod::Perldoc::ToChecker>. |
125 | ||
126 | You can specify several classes to try by joining them with commas | |
127 | or semicolons, as in C<-MTk::SuperPod;Tk::Pod>. | |
128 | ||
129 | =item B<-w> I<option:value> or B<-w> I<option> | |
130 | ||
131 | This specifies an option to call the formatter B<w>ith. For example, | |
132 | C<-w textsize:15> will call | |
133 | C<< $formatter->textsize(15) >> on the formatter object before it is | |
134 | used to format the object. For this to be valid, the formatter class | |
135 | must provide such a method, and the value you pass should be valid. | |
136 | (So if C<textsize> expects an integer, and you do C<-w textsize:big>, | |
137 | expect trouble.) | |
138 | ||
139 | You can use C<-w optionname> (without a value) as shorthand for | |
140 | C<-w optionname:I<TRUE>>. This is presumably useful in cases of on/off | |
141 | features like: C<-w page_numbering>. | |
142 | ||
143 | You can use a "=" instead of the ":", as in: C<-w textsize=15>. This | |
144 | might be more (or less) convenient, depending on what shell you use. | |
145 | ||
146 | =item B<-X> | |
147 | ||
148 | Use an index if it is present -- the B<-X> option looks for an entry | |
149 | whose basename matches the name given on the command line in the file | |
150 | C<$Config{archlib}/pod.idx>. The F<pod.idx> file should contain fully | |
151 | qualified filenames, one per line. | |
152 | ||
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153 | =item B<-L> I<language_code> |
154 | ||
155 | This allows to specify the I<language code> for desired language translation. | |
156 | If C<POD2::E<lt>language_codeE<gt>> package doesn't exist (or isn't installed | |
157 | in your system), the switch will be ignored. | |
158 | All available translation packages should be found under the C<POD2::> | |
159 | namespace. See L<POD2::IT> (or L<POD2::FR>) in order to see how to create and | |
160 | integrate new localized C<POD2::*> pod documentation packages in | |
161 | L<Pod::Perldoc>. | |
162 | ||
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163 | =item B<PageName|ModuleName|ProgramName> |
164 | ||
165 | The item you want to look up. Nested modules (such as C<File::Basename>) | |
166 | are specified either as C<File::Basename> or C<File/Basename>. You may also | |
167 | give a descriptive name of a page, such as C<perlfunc>. | |
168 | ||
169 | =item B<-n> I<some-formatter> | |
170 | ||
171 | Specify replacement for nroff | |
172 | ||
173 | =item B<-r> | |
174 | ||
175 | Recursive search. | |
176 | ||
177 | =item B<-i> | |
178 | ||
179 | Ignore case. | |
180 | ||
181 | =item B<-V> | |
182 | ||
183 | Displays the version of perldoc you're running. | |
184 | ||
185 | =back | |
186 | ||
187 | ||
188 | ||
189 | =head1 SECURITY | |
190 | ||
191 | Because B<perldoc> does not run properly tainted, and is known to | |
192 | have security issues, when run as the superuser it will attempt to | |
193 | drop privileges by setting the effective and real IDs to nobody's | |
194 | or nouser's account, or -2 if unavailable. If it cannot relinquish | |
195 | its privileges, it will not run. | |
196 | ||
197 | ||
198 | =head1 ENVIRONMENT | |
199 | ||
200 | Any switches in the C<PERLDOC> environment variable will be used before the | |
201 | command line arguments. | |
202 | ||
203 | Useful values for C<PERLDOC> include C<-oman>, C<-otext>, C<-otk>, C<-ortf>, | |
204 | C<-oxml>, and so on, depending on what modules you have on hand; or | |
205 | exactly specify the formatter class with C<-MPod::Perldoc::ToMan> | |
206 | or the like. | |
207 | ||
208 | C<perldoc> also searches directories | |
209 | specified by the C<PERL5LIB> (or C<PERLLIB> if C<PERL5LIB> is not | |
210 | defined) and C<PATH> environment variables. | |
211 | (The latter is so that embedded pods for executables, such as | |
212 | C<perldoc> itself, are available.) | |
213 | ||
214 | C<perldoc> will use, in order of preference, the pager defined in | |
215 | C<PERLDOC_PAGER>, C<MANPAGER>, or C<PAGER> before trying to find a pager | |
216 | on its own. (C<MANPAGER> is not used if C<perldoc> was told to display | |
217 | plain text or unformatted pod.) | |
218 | ||
219 | One useful value for C<PERLDOC_PAGER> is C<less -+C -E>. | |
220 | ||
221 | Having PERLDOCDEBUG set to a positive integer will make perldoc emit | |
222 | even more descriptive output than the C<-v> switch does -- the higher the | |
223 | number, the more it emits. | |
224 | ||
225 | =head1 AUTHOR | |
226 | ||
227 | Current maintainer: Sean M. Burke, <sburke@cpan.org> | |
228 | ||
229 | Past contributors are: | |
230 | Kenneth Albanowski <kjahds@kjahds.com>, | |
537c2f98 | 231 | Andy Dougherty <doughera@lafcol.lafayette.edu>, |
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232 | and many others. |
233 | ||
234 | =cut | |
235 |