3 This document is in Pod format. To read this, use a Pod formatter,
4 like "perldoc perlpod".
7 X<POD> X<plain old documentation>
9 perlpod - the Plain Old Documentation format
13 Pod is a simple-to-use markup language used for writing documentation
14 for Perl, Perl programs, and Perl modules.
16 Translators are available for converting Pod to various formats
17 like plain text, HTML, man pages, and more.
19 Pod markup consists of three basic kinds of paragraphs:
20 L<ordinary|/"Ordinary Paragraph">,
21 L<verbatim|/"Verbatim Paragraph">, and
22 L<command|/"Command Paragraph">.
25 =head2 Ordinary Paragraph
26 X<POD, ordinary paragraph>
28 Most paragraphs in your documentation will be ordinary blocks
29 of text, like this one. You can simply type in your text without
30 any markup whatsoever, and with just a blank line before and
31 after. When it gets formatted, it will undergo minimal formatting,
32 like being rewrapped, probably put into a proportionally spaced
33 font, and maybe even justified.
35 You can use formatting codes in ordinary paragraphs, for B<bold>,
36 I<italic>, C<code-style>, L<hyperlinks|perlfaq>, and more. Such
37 codes are explained in the "L<Formatting Codes|/"Formatting Codes">"
41 =head2 Verbatim Paragraph
42 X<POD, verbatim paragraph> X<verbatim>
44 Verbatim paragraphs are usually used for presenting a codeblock or
45 other text which does not require any special parsing or formatting,
46 and which shouldn't be wrapped.
48 A verbatim paragraph is distinguished by having its first character
49 be a space or a tab. (And commonly, all its lines begin with spaces
50 and/or tabs.) It should be reproduced exactly, with tabs assumed to
51 be on 8-column boundaries. There are no special formatting codes,
52 so you can't italicize or anything like that. A \ means \, and
56 =head2 Command Paragraph
59 A command paragraph is used for special treatment of whole chunks
60 of text, usually as headings or parts of lists.
62 All command paragraphs (which are typically only one line long) start
63 with "=", followed by an identifier, followed by arbitrary text that
64 the command can use however it pleases. Currently recognized commands
81 To explain them each in detail:
85 =item C<=head1 I<Heading Text>>
86 X<=head1> X<=head2> X<=head3> X<=head4>
87 X<head1> X<head2> X<head3> X<head4>
89 =item C<=head2 I<Heading Text>>
91 =item C<=head3 I<Heading Text>>
93 =item C<=head4 I<Heading Text>>
95 Head1 through head4 produce headings, head1 being the highest
96 level. The text in the rest of this paragraph is the content of the
99 =head2 Object Attributes
101 The text "Object Attributes" comprises the heading there.
102 The text in these heading commands can use formatting codes, as seen here:
104 =head2 Possible Values for C<$/>
106 Such commands are explained in the
107 "L<Formatting Codes|/"Formatting Codes">" section, below.
109 =item C<=over I<indentlevel>>
110 X<=over> X<=item> X<=back> X<over> X<item> X<back>
112 =item C<=item I<stuff...>>
116 Item, over, and back require a little more explanation: "=over" starts
117 a region specifically for the generation of a list using "=item"
118 commands, or for indenting (groups of) normal paragraphs. At the end
119 of your list, use "=back" to end it. The I<indentlevel> option to
120 "=over" indicates how far over to indent, generally in ems (where
121 one em is the width of an "M" in the document's base font) or roughly
122 comparable units; if there is no I<indentlevel> option, it defaults
123 to four. (And some formatters may just ignore whatever I<indentlevel>
124 you provide.) In the I<stuff> in C<=item I<stuff...>>, you may
125 use formatting codes, as seen here:
127 =item Using C<$|> to Control Buffering
129 Such commands are explained in the
130 "L<Formatting Codes|/"Formatting Codes">" section, below.
132 Note also that there are some basic rules to using "=over" ...
139 Don't use "=item"s outside of an "=over" ... "=back" region.
143 The first thing after the "=over" command should be an "=item", unless
144 there aren't going to be any items at all in this "=over" ... "=back"
149 Don't put "=headI<n>" commands inside an "=over" ... "=back" region.
153 And perhaps most importantly, keep the items consistent: either use
154 "=item *" for all of them, to produce bullets; or use "=item 1.",
155 "=item 2.", etc., to produce numbered lists; or use "=item foo",
156 "=item bar", etc.--namely, things that look nothing like bullets or
157 numbers. (If you have a list that contains both: 1) things that don't
158 look like bullets nor numbers, plus 2) things that do, you should
159 preface the bullet- or number-like items with C<ZE<lt>E<gt>>. See
160 L<ZE<lt>E<gt>|/ZE<lt>E<gt> -- a null (zero-effect) formatting code>
161 below for an example.)
163 If you start with bullets or numbers, stick with them, as
164 formatters use the first "=item" type to decide how to format the
172 To end a Pod block, use a blank line,
173 then a line beginning with "=cut", and a blank
174 line after it. This lets Perl (and the Pod formatter) know that
175 this is where Perl code is resuming. (The blank line before the "=cut"
176 is not technically necessary, but many older Pod processors require it.)
181 The "=pod" command by itself doesn't do much of anything, but it
182 signals to Perl (and Pod formatters) that a Pod block starts here. A
183 Pod block starts with I<any> command paragraph, so a "=pod" command is
184 usually used just when you want to start a Pod block with an ordinary
185 paragraph or a verbatim paragraph. For example:
189 This function does stuff.
199 Remember to check its return value, as in:
201 stuff() || die "Couldn't do stuff!";
205 =item C<=begin I<formatname>>
206 X<=begin> X<=end> X<=for> X<begin> X<end> X<for>
208 =item C<=end I<formatname>>
210 =item C<=for I<formatname> I<text...>>
212 For, begin, and end will let you have regions of text/code/data that
213 are not generally interpreted as normal Pod text, but are passed
214 directly to particular formatters, or are otherwise special. A
215 formatter that can use that format will use the region, otherwise it
216 will be completely ignored.
218 A command "=begin I<formatname>", some paragraphs, and a
219 command "=end I<formatname>", mean that the text/data in between
220 is meant for formatters that understand the special format
221 called I<formatname>. For example,
225 <hr> <img src="thang.png">
226 <p> This is a raw HTML paragraph </p>
230 The command "=for I<formatname> I<text...>"
231 specifies that the remainder of just this paragraph (starting
232 right after I<formatname>) is in that special format.
234 =for html <hr> <img src="thang.png">
235 <p> This is a raw HTML paragraph </p>
237 This means the same thing as the above "=begin html" ... "=end html"
240 That is, with "=for", you can have only one paragraph's worth
241 of text (i.e., the text in "=foo targetname text..."), but with
242 "=begin targetname" ... "=end targetname", you can have any amount
243 of stuff in between. (Note that there still must be a blank line
244 after the "=begin" command and a blank line before the "=end"
247 Here are some examples of how to use these:
251 <br>Figure 1.<br><IMG SRC="figure1.png"><br>
266 Some format names that formatters currently are known to accept
267 include "roff", "man", "latex", "tex", "text", and "html". (Some
268 formatters will treat some of these as synonyms.)
270 A format name of "comment" is common for just making notes (presumably
271 to yourself) that won't appear in any formatted version of the Pod
275 Make sure that all the available options are documented!
277 Some I<formatnames> will require a leading colon (as in
278 C<"=for :formatname">, or
279 C<"=begin :formatname" ... "=end :formatname">),
280 to signal that the text is not raw data, but instead I<is> Pod text
281 (i.e., possibly containing formatting codes) that's just not for
282 normal formatting (e.g., may not be a normal-use paragraph, but might
283 be for formatting as a footnote).
285 =item C<=encoding I<encodingname>>
286 X<=encoding> X<encoding>
288 This command is used for declaring the encoding of a document. Most
289 users won't need this; but if your encoding isn't US-ASCII,
290 then put a C<=encoding I<encodingname>> command very early in the document so
291 that pod formatters will know how to decode the document. For
292 I<encodingname>, use a name recognized by the L<Encode::Supported>
293 module. Some pod formatters may try to guess between a Latin-1 or
295 UTF-8 encoding, but they may guess wrong. It's best to be explicit if
296 you use anything besides strict ASCII. Examples:
308 C<=encoding> affects the whole document, and must occur only once.
312 And don't forget, all commands but C<=encoding> last up
313 until the end of its I<paragraph>, not its line. So in the
314 examples below, you can see that every command needs the blank
315 line after it, to end its paragraph. (And some older Pod translators
316 may require the C<=encoding> line to have a following blank line as
317 well, even though it should be legal to omit.)
319 Some examples of lists include:
337 Description of Foo function
341 Description of Bar function
346 =head2 Formatting Codes
347 X<POD, formatting code> X<formatting code>
348 X<POD, interior sequence> X<interior sequence>
350 In ordinary paragraphs and in some command paragraphs, various
351 formatting codes (a.k.a. "interior sequences") can be used:
354 "interior sequences" is such an opaque term.
355 Prefer "formatting codes" instead.
359 =item C<IE<lt>textE<gt>> -- italic text
360 X<I> X<< IZ<><> >> X<POD, formatting code, italic> X<italic>
362 Used for emphasis ("C<be IE<lt>careful!E<gt>>") and parameters
363 ("C<redo IE<lt>LABELE<gt>>")
365 =item C<BE<lt>textE<gt>> -- bold text
366 X<B> X<< BZ<><> >> X<POD, formatting code, bold> X<bold>
368 Used for switches ("C<perl's BE<lt>-nE<gt> switch>"), programs
369 ("C<some systems provide a BE<lt>chfnE<gt> for that>"),
370 emphasis ("C<be BE<lt>careful!E<gt>>"), and so on
371 ("C<and that feature is known as BE<lt>autovivificationE<gt>>").
373 =item C<CE<lt>codeE<gt>> -- code text
374 X<C> X<< CZ<><> >> X<POD, formatting code, code> X<code>
376 Renders code in a typewriter font, or gives some other indication that
377 this represents program text ("C<CE<lt>gmtime($^T)E<gt>>") or some other
378 form of computerese ("C<CE<lt>drwxr-xr-xE<gt>>").
380 =item C<LE<lt>nameE<gt>> -- a hyperlink
381 X<L> X<< LZ<><> >> X<POD, formatting code, hyperlink> X<hyperlink>
383 There are various syntaxes, listed below. In the syntaxes given,
384 C<text>, C<name>, and C<section> cannot contain the characters
385 '/' and '|'; and any '<' or '>' should be matched.
393 Link to a Perl manual page (e.g., C<LE<lt>Net::PingE<gt>>). Note
394 that C<name> should not contain spaces. This syntax
395 is also occasionally used for references to Unix man pages, as in
396 C<LE<lt>crontab(5)E<gt>>.
400 C<LE<lt>name/"sec"E<gt>> or C<LE<lt>name/secE<gt>>
402 Link to a section in other manual page. E.g.,
403 C<LE<lt>perlsyn/"For Loops"E<gt>>
407 C<LE<lt>/"sec"E<gt>> or C<LE<lt>/secE<gt>>
409 Link to a section in this manual page. E.g.,
410 C<LE<lt>/"Object Methods"E<gt>>
414 A section is started by the named heading or item. For
415 example, C<LE<lt>perlvar/$.E<gt>> or C<LE<lt>perlvar/"$."E<gt>> both
416 link to the section started by "C<=item $.>" in perlvar. And
417 C<LE<lt>perlsyn/For LoopsE<gt>> or C<LE<lt>perlsyn/"For Loops"E<gt>>
418 both link to the section started by "C<=head2 For Loops>"
421 To control what text is used for display, you
422 use "C<LE<lt>text|...E<gt>>", as in:
428 C<LE<lt>text|nameE<gt>>
430 Link this text to that manual page. E.g.,
431 C<LE<lt>Perl Error Messages|perldiagE<gt>>
435 C<LE<lt>text|name/"sec"E<gt>> or C<LE<lt>text|name/secE<gt>>
437 Link this text to that section in that manual page. E.g.,
438 C<LE<lt>postfix "if"|perlsyn/"Statement Modifiers"E<gt>>
442 C<LE<lt>text|/"sec"E<gt>> or C<LE<lt>text|/secE<gt>>
443 or C<LE<lt>text|"sec"E<gt>>
445 Link this text to that section in this manual page. E.g.,
446 C<LE<lt>the various attributes|/"Member Data"E<gt>>
450 Or you can link to a web page:
456 C<LE<lt>scheme:...E<gt>>
458 C<LE<lt>text|scheme:...E<gt>>
460 Links to an absolute URL. For example, C<LE<lt>http://www.perl.org/E<gt>> or
461 C<LE<lt>The Perl Home Page|http://www.perl.org/E<gt>>.
465 =item C<EE<lt>escapeE<gt>> -- a character escape
466 X<E> X<< EZ<><> >> X<POD, formatting code, escape> X<escape>
468 Very similar to HTML/XML C<&I<foo>;> "entity references":
474 C<EE<lt>ltE<gt>> -- a literal E<lt> (less than)
478 C<EE<lt>gtE<gt>> -- a literal E<gt> (greater than)
482 C<EE<lt>verbarE<gt>> -- a literal | (I<ver>tical I<bar>)
486 C<EE<lt>solE<gt>> -- a literal / (I<sol>idus)
488 The above four are optional except in other formatting codes,
489 notably C<LE<lt>...E<gt>>, and when preceded by a
494 C<EE<lt>htmlnameE<gt>>
496 Some non-numeric HTML entity name, such as C<EE<lt>eacuteE<gt>>,
497 meaning the same thing as C<é> in HTML -- i.e., a lowercase
498 e with an acute (/-shaped) accent.
504 The ASCII/Latin-1/Unicode character with that number. A
505 leading "0x" means that I<number> is hex, as in
506 C<EE<lt>0x201EE<gt>>. A leading "0" means that I<number> is octal,
507 as in C<EE<lt>075E<gt>>. Otherwise I<number> is interpreted as being
508 in decimal, as in C<EE<lt>181E<gt>>.
510 Note that older Pod formatters might not recognize octal or
511 hex numeric escapes, and that many formatters cannot reliably
512 render characters above 255. (Some formatters may even have
513 to use compromised renderings of Latin-1/CP-1252 characters, like
514 rendering C<EE<lt>eacuteE<gt>> as just a plain "e".)
518 =item C<FE<lt>filenameE<gt>> -- used for filenames
519 X<F> X<< FZ<><> >> X<POD, formatting code, filename> X<filename>
521 Typically displayed in italics. Example: "C<FE<lt>.cshrcE<gt>>"
523 =item C<SE<lt>textE<gt>> -- text contains non-breaking spaces
524 X<S> X<< SZ<><> >> X<POD, formatting code, non-breaking space>
525 X<non-breaking space>
527 This means that the words in I<text> should not be broken
528 across lines. Example: S<C<SE<lt>$x ? $y : $zE<gt>>>.
530 =item C<XE<lt>topic nameE<gt>> -- an index entry
531 X<X> X<< XZ<><> >> X<POD, formatting code, index entry> X<index entry>
533 This is ignored by most formatters, but some may use it for building
534 indexes. It always renders as empty-string.
535 Example: C<XE<lt>absolutizing relative URLsE<gt>>
537 =item C<ZE<lt>E<gt>> -- a null (zero-effect) formatting code
538 X<Z> X<< ZZ<><> >> X<POD, formatting code, null> X<null>
540 This is rarely used. It's one way to get around using an
541 EE<lt>...E<gt> code sometimes. For example, instead of
542 "C<NEE<lt>ltE<gt>3>" (for "NE<lt>3") you could write
543 "C<NZE<lt>E<gt>E<lt>3>" (the "ZE<lt>E<gt>" breaks up the "N" and
544 the "E<lt>" so they can't be considered
545 the part of a (fictitious) "NE<lt>...E<gt>" code).
547 Another use is to indicate that I<stuff> in C<=item ZE<lt>E<gt>I<stuff...>>
548 is not to be considered to be a bullet or number. For example,
549 without the C<ZE<lt>E<gt>>, the line
551 =item Z<>500 Server error
553 could possibly be parsed as an item in a numbered list when it isn't
556 Still another use is to maintain visual space between C<=item> lines.
563 it will typically get rendered as
568 That may be what you want, but if what you really want is
574 you can use C<ZE<lt>E<gt>> to accomplish that
583 This was formerly explained as a "zero-width character". But it in
584 most parser models, it parses to nothing at all, as opposed to parsing
585 as if it were a E<zwnj> or E<zwj>, which are REAL zero-width characters.
586 So "width" and "character" are exactly the wrong words.
590 Most of the time, you will need only a single set of angle brackets to
591 delimit the beginning and end of formatting codes. However,
592 sometimes you will want to put a real right angle bracket (a
593 greater-than sign, '>') inside of a formatting code. This is particularly
594 common when using a formatting code to provide a different font-type for a
595 snippet of code. As with all things in Perl, there is more than
596 one way to do it. One way is to simply escape the closing bracket
601 This will produce: "C<$a E<lt>=E<gt> $b>"
603 A more readable, and perhaps more "plain" way is to use an alternate
604 set of delimiters that doesn't require a single ">" to be escaped.
605 Doubled angle brackets ("<<" and ">>") may be used I<if and only if there is
606 whitespace right after the opening delimiter and whitespace right
607 before the closing delimiter!> For example, the following will
609 X<POD, formatting code, escaping with multiple brackets>
613 In fact, you can use as many repeated angle-brackets as you like so
614 long as you have the same number of them in the opening and closing
615 delimiters, and make sure that whitespace immediately follows the last
616 '<' of the opening delimiter, and immediately precedes the first '>'
617 of the closing delimiter. (The whitespace is ignored.) So the
618 following will also work:
619 X<POD, formatting code, escaping with multiple brackets>
624 And they all mean exactly the same as this:
628 The multiple-bracket form does not affect the interpretation of the contents of
629 the formatting code, only how it must end. That means that the examples above
630 are also exactly the same as this:
632 C<< $a E<lt>=E<gt> $b >>
634 As a further example, this means that if you wanted to put these bits of
635 code in C<C> (code) style:
637 open(X, ">>thing.dat") || die $!
640 you could do it like so:
642 C<<< open(X, ">>thing.dat") || die $! >>>
645 which is presumably easier to read than the old way:
647 C<open(X, "E<gt>E<gt>thing.dat") || die $!>
650 This is currently supported by pod2text (Pod::Text), pod2man (Pod::Man),
651 and any other pod2xxx or Pod::Xxxx translators that use
652 Pod::Parser 1.093 or later, or Pod::Tree 1.02 or later.
657 The intent is simplicity of use, not power of expression. Paragraphs
658 look like paragraphs (block format), so that they stand out
659 visually, and so that I could run them through C<fmt> easily to reformat
660 them (that's F7 in my version of B<vi>, or Esc Q in my version of
661 B<emacs>). I wanted the translator to always leave the C<'> and C<`> and
662 C<"> quotes alone, in verbatim mode, so I could slurp in a
663 working program, shift it over four spaces, and have it print out, er,
664 verbatim. And presumably in a monospace font.
666 The Pod format is not necessarily sufficient for writing a book. Pod
667 is just meant to be an idiot-proof common source for nroff, HTML,
668 TeX, and other markup languages, as used for online
669 documentation. Translators exist for B<pod2text>, B<pod2html>,
670 B<pod2man> (that's for nroff(1) and troff(1)), B<pod2latex>, and
671 B<pod2fm>. Various others are available in CPAN.
674 =head2 Embedding Pods in Perl Modules
677 You can embed Pod documentation in your Perl modules and scripts. Start
678 your documentation with an empty line, a "=head1" command at the
679 beginning, and end it with a "=cut" command and an empty line. The
680 B<perl> executable will ignore the Pod text. You can place a Pod
681 statement where B<perl> expects the beginning of a new statement, but
682 not within a statement, as that would result in an error. See any of
683 the supplied library modules for examples.
685 If you're going to put your Pod at the end of the file, and you're using
686 an C<__END__> or C<__DATA__> cut mark, make sure to put an empty line there
687 before the first Pod command.
693 Time::Local - efficiently compute time from local and GMT time
695 Without that empty line before the "=head1", many translators wouldn't
696 have recognized the "=head1" as starting a Pod block.
698 =head2 Hints for Writing Pod
703 X<podchecker> X<POD, validating>
705 The B<podchecker> command is provided for checking Pod syntax for errors
706 and warnings. For example, it checks for completely blank lines in
707 Pod blocks and for unknown commands and formatting codes. You should
708 still also pass your document through one or more translators and proofread
709 the result, or print out the result and proofread that. Some of the
710 problems found may be bugs in the translators, which you may or may not
715 If you're more familiar with writing in HTML than with writing in Pod, you
716 can try your hand at writing documentation in simple HTML, and converting
717 it to Pod with the experimental L<Pod::HTML2Pod|Pod::HTML2Pod> module,
718 (available in CPAN), and looking at the resulting code. The experimental
719 L<Pod::PXML|Pod::PXML> module in CPAN might also be useful.
723 Many older Pod translators require the lines before every Pod
724 command and after every Pod command (including "=cut"!) to be a blank
725 line. Having something like this:
727 # - - - - - - - - - - - -
728 =item $firecracker->boom()
730 This noisily detonates the firecracker object.
735 ...will make such Pod translators completely fail to see the Pod block
738 Instead, have it like this:
740 # - - - - - - - - - - - -
742 =item $firecracker->boom()
744 This noisily detonates the firecracker object.
753 Some older Pod translators require paragraphs (including command
754 paragraphs like "=head2 Functions") to be separated by I<completely>
755 empty lines. If you have an apparently empty line with some spaces
756 on it, this might not count as a separator for those translators, and
757 that could cause odd formatting.
761 Older translators might add wording around an LE<lt>E<gt> link, so that
762 C<LE<lt>Foo::BarE<gt>> may become "the Foo::Bar manpage", for example.
763 So you shouldn't write things like C<the LE<lt>fooE<gt>
764 documentation>, if you want the translated document to read sensibly.
765 Instead, write C<the LE<lt>Foo::Bar|Foo::BarE<gt> documentation> or
766 C<LE<lt>the Foo::Bar documentation|Foo::BarE<gt>>, to control how the
771 Going past the 70th column in a verbatim block might be ungracefully
772 wrapped by some formatters.
778 L<perlpodspec>, L<perlsyn/"PODs: Embedded Documentation">,
779 L<perlnewmod>, L<perldoc>, L<pod2html>, L<pod2man>, L<podchecker>.
783 Larry Wall, Sean M. Burke