


POD2TEXT(1)      Perl Programmers Reference Guide     POD2TEXT(1)


NAME
       pod2text - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text

SYNOPSIS
       pod2text [-aclostu] [--code] [-i indent] [-q quotes]
           [--stderr] [-w width] [input [output ...]]

       pod2text -h

DESCRIPTION
       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.

OPTIONS
       -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



perl v5.10.1                2010-03-17                          1





POD2TEXT(1)      Perl Programmers Reference Guide     POD2TEXT(1)


           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 overstrike 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.

       --stderr
           By default, pod2text puts any errors detected in the
           POD input in a POD ERRORS section in the output manual
           page.  If --stderr is given, errors are sent to
           standard error instead and the POD ERRORS section is
           suppressed.

       -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.




perl v5.10.1                2010-03-17                          2





POD2TEXT(1)      Perl Programmers Reference Guide     POD2TEXT(1)


       -u, --utf8
           By default, pod2text tries to use the same output
           encoding as its input encoding (to be backward-
           compatible with older versions).  This option says to
           instead force the output encoding to UTF-8.

           Be aware that, when using this option, the input
           encoding of your POD source must be properly declared
           unless it is US-ASCII or Latin-1.  POD input without
           an "=encoding" command will be assumed to be in
           Latin-1, and if it's actually in UTF-8, the output
           will be double-encoded.  See perlpod(1) for more
           information on the "=encoding" command.

       -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.

DIAGNOSTICS
       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.

ENVIRONMENT
       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.

SEE ALSO
       Pod::Text, Pod::Text::Color, Pod::Text::Overstrike,
       Pod::Text::Termcap, Pod::Simple, perlpod(1)

       The current version of this script is always available



perl v5.10.1                2010-03-17                          3





POD2TEXT(1)      Perl Programmers Reference Guide     POD2TEXT(1)


       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.

AUTHOR
       Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
       Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008 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.












































perl v5.10.1                2010-03-17                          4


