How do I get Perl POD in string and print it in page?

Question

I have a POD document. Now, I want to convert that POD to a parsed section like usage/description and get it in a string.

Why not pod2usage?

This doesn't help me to get the output in string but in STDOUT/file. I am stressing on the point "getting it in string", because I want to display the POD in "pages" if the length exceeds screen length. pod2usage doesn't print them in pages :(

Can somebody tell me which module to use for this purpose?

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 05 '09 at 05:29

2

Pod::Usage, which is referenced on the bottom of the pod2usage man page.

answered Oct 05 '09 at 05:29

Ether

53,118
13
86
159

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 05 '09 at 12:58

1

From the Pod::Parser documentation:

Alternatively, an IO::String object is also accepted as an output file handle.

So this is perfectly legal:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use IO::String;
use Pod::Text;
my $buffer;
my $io = IO::String->new($buffer);
my $parser= Pod::Text->new (sentence => 0, width => 78);
$parser->parse_from_file('/usr/share/perl5/Net/Jabber.pm',$io);
print $buffer;

On the other hand, remember that you can capture the output of any command using backticks, e.g.

$text = `/usr/bin/pod2usage /usr/share/perl5/Net/Jabber.pm`;

or qx{} for clarity:

$text = qx{/usr/bin/pod2usage /usr/share/perl5/Net/Jabber.pm};

edited Oct 05 '09 at 12:58

Sinan Ünür

116,958
15
196
339

answered Oct 05 '09 at 05:42

codehead

2,077
16
20

2

`IO::String` is useful for all sorts of things. – Matthew Scharley Oct 05 '09 at 05:53
1

Indeed, but if you are sure to be running in a perl5.8-or later environment, you can just use scalar references instead. – Ether Oct 05 '09 at 06:04
Since Pod::Text derives from Pod::Simple, you can say: `my $string; $parser->output_string(\$string);` right below your Pod::Text->new line, and then you'll get all your output written out to $string. Pod::Text makes a lot more sense than backticks/qx{} IMO, since it's cross-platform. – Gaurav Oct 05 '09 at 06:09
i am using 5.8.8 version only.. I have got all output to a string.. then to print only one section of POD(eg: synopsis), do i have to do manual parsing? or is there any modules which provides way to extract that also? – Anandan Oct 05 '09 at 09:16
That's the exact description of Pod::Select ^_^ – codehead Oct 05 '09 at 13:24

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 05 '09 at 22:36

You don't have to do all of the Pod parsing yourself; most of it is done already with Pod::Simple. You can write a short subclass to do whatever you need. I have a chapter in Mastering Perl that goes into the details, but you can also look at my Pod::Perldoc::TOC module to see a short example.

Basically, you handle the =head1 elements, but skip the ones that aren't SYNOPSIS. Once you run into the right =head1, set a flag and process the section until you run into another =head1, at which point you stop parsing. You can do anything you like between the =head1's, including appending to a variable.

How do I get Perl POD in string and print it in page?

3 Answers3