POD2TEXT(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide POD2TEXT(1)NAMEpod2text - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text
SYNOPSISpod2text [-aclost] [-i indent] [-q quotes] [-w width]
[input [output]]
pod2text-h
DESCRIPTIONpod2text 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 format
ted output is written to STDOUT.
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.
-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. Nor
mally, no blank line is printed after "=head1",
although one is still printed after "=head2", because
this is the expected formatting for manual pages; if
you're formatting arbitrary text documents, using this
option is recommended.
-o, --overstrike
Format the output with overstruck printing. Bold text
is rendered as character, backspace, character. Ital
ics 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 con
secutive whitespace in non-verbatim paragraphs is com
pressed into a single space.
-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 some
where 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.
-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 ter
minal device.
DIAGNOSTICS
If pod2text fails with errors, see the Pod::Text manpage
and the Pod::Parser manpage 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::Termcap,
Pod::Parser
AUTHOR
Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>.
2002-06-25 perl v5.6.1 POD2TEXT(1)
