NAME

       Pod::Simple - framework for parsing Pod

SYNOPSIS

        TODO

DESCRIPTION

       Pod::Simple is a Perl library for parsing text in the Pod ("plain old documentation") markup language
       that is typically used for writing documentation for Perl and for Perl modules. The Pod format is
       explained in perlpod; the most common formatter is called "perldoc".

       Be sure to read "ENCODING" if your Pod contains non-ASCII characters.

       Pod formatters can use Pod::Simple to parse Pod documents and render them into plain text, HTML, or any
       number of other formats. Typically, such formatters will be subclasses of Pod::Simple, and so they will
       inherit its methods, like "parse_file".  But note that Pod::Simple doesn't understand and properly parse
       Perl itself, so if you have a file which contains a Perl program that has a multi-line quoted string
       which has lines that look like pod, Pod::Simple will treat them as pod.  This can be avoided if the file
       makes these into indented here documents instead.

       If you're reading this document just because you have a Pod-processing subclass that you want to use,
       this document (plus the documentation for the subclass) is probably all you need to read.

       If you're reading this document because you want to write a formatter subclass, continue reading it and
       then read Pod::Simple::Subclassing, and then possibly even read perlpodspec (some of which is for parser-
       writers, but much of which is notes to formatter-writers).

MAIN METHODS

       "$parser = SomeClass->new();"
           This returns a new parser object, where "SomeClass" is a subclass of Pod::Simple.

       "$parser->output_fh( *OUT );"
           This sets the filehandle that $parser's output will be written to.  You can pass *STDOUT or *STDERR,
           otherwise you should probably do something like this:

               my $outfile = "output.txt";
               open TXTOUT, ">$outfile" or die "Can't write to $outfile: $!";
               $parser->output_fh(*TXTOUT);

           ...before you call one of the "$parser->parse_whatever" methods.

       "$parser->output_string( \$somestring );"
           This sets the string that $parser's output will be sent to, instead of any filehandle.

       "$parser->parse_file( $some_filename );"
       "$parser->parse_file( *INPUT_FH );"
           This reads the Pod content of the file (or filehandle) that you specify, and processes it with that
           $parser object, according to however $parser's class works, and according to whatever parser options
           you have set up for this $parser object.

       "$parser->parse_string_document( $all_content );"
           This works just like "parse_file" except that it reads the Pod content not from a file, but from a
           string that you have already in memory.

       "$parser->parse_lines( ...@lines..., undef );"
           This processes the lines in @lines (where each list item must be a defined value, and must contain
           exactly one line of content -- so no items like "foo\nbar" are allowed).  The final "undef" is used
           to indicate the end of document being parsed.

           The other "parser_whatever" methods are meant to be called only once per $parser object; but
           "parse_lines" can be called as many times per $parser object as you want, as long as the last call
           (and only the last call) ends with an "undef" value.

       "$parser->content_seen"
           This returns true only if there has been any real content seen for this document. Returns false in
           cases where the document contains content, but does not make use of any Pod markup.

       "SomeClass->filter( $filename );"
       "SomeClass->filter( *INPUT_FH );"
       "SomeClass->filter( \$document_content );"
           This is a shortcut method for creating a new parser object, setting the output handle to STDOUT, and
           then processing the specified file (or filehandle, or in-memory document). This is handy for one-
           liners like this:

             perl -MPod::Simple::Text -e "Pod::Simple::Text->filter('thingy.pod')"

SECONDARY METHODS

       Some of these methods might be of interest to general users, as well as of interest to formatter-writers.

       Note that the general pattern here is that the accessor-methods read the attribute's value with "$value =
       $parser->attribute" and set the attribute's value with "$parser->attribute(newvalue)".  For each
       accessor, I typically only mention one syntax or another, based on which I think you are actually most
       likely to use.

       "$parser->parse_characters( SOMEVALUE )"
           The Pod parser normally expects to read octets and to convert those octets to characters based on the
           "=encoding" declaration in the Pod source.  Set this option to a true value to indicate that the Pod
           source is already a Perl character stream.  This tells the parser to ignore any "=encoding" command
           and to skip all the code paths involving decoding octets.

       "$parser->no_whining( SOMEVALUE )"
           If you set this attribute to a true value, you will suppress the parser's complaints about
           irregularities in the Pod coding. By default, this attribute's value is false, meaning that
           irregularities will be reported.

           Note that turning this attribute to true won't suppress one or two kinds of complaints about rarely
           occurring unrecoverable errors.

       "$parser->no_errata_section( SOMEVALUE )"
           If you set this attribute to a true value, you will stop the parser from generating a "POD ERRORS"
           section at the end of the document. By default, this attribute's value is false, meaning that an
           errata section will be generated, as necessary.

       "$parser->complain_stderr( SOMEVALUE )"
           If you set this attribute to a true value, it will send reports of parsing errors to STDERR. By
           default, this attribute's value is false, meaning that no output is sent to STDERR.

           Setting "complain_stderr" also sets "no_errata_section".

       "$parser->source_filename"
           This returns the filename that this parser object was set to read from.

       "$parser->doc_has_started"
           This returns true if $parser has read from a source, and has seen Pod content in it.

       "$parser->source_dead"
           This returns true if $parser has read from a source, and come to the end of that source.

       "$parser->strip_verbatim_indent( SOMEVALUE )"
           The perlpod spec for a Verbatim paragraph is "It should be reproduced exactly...", which means that
           the whitespace you've used to indent your verbatim blocks will be preserved in the output. This can
           be annoying for outputs such as HTML, where that whitespace will remain in front of every line. It's
           an unfortunate case where syntax is turned into semantics.

           If the POD you're parsing adheres to a consistent indentation policy, you can have such indentation
           stripped from the beginning of every line of your verbatim blocks. This method tells Pod::Simple what
           to strip. For two-space indents, you'd use:

             $parser->strip_verbatim_indent('  ');

           For tab indents, you'd use a tab character:

             $parser->strip_verbatim_indent("\t");

           If the POD is inconsistent about the indentation of verbatim blocks, but you have figured out a
           heuristic to determine how much a particular verbatim block is indented, you can pass a code
           reference instead. The code reference will be executed with one argument, an array reference of all
           the lines in the verbatim block, and should return the value to be stripped from each line. For
           example, if you decide that you're fine to use the first line of the verbatim block to set the
           standard for indentation of the rest of the block, you can look at the first line and return the
           appropriate value, like so:

             $new->strip_verbatim_indent(sub {
                 my $lines = shift;
                 (my $indent = $lines->[0]) =~ s/\S.*//;
                 return $indent;
             });

           If you'd rather treat each line individually, you can do that, too, by just transforming them in-
           place in the code reference and returning "undef". Say that you don't want any lines indented. You
           can do something like this:

             $new->strip_verbatim_indent(sub {
                 my $lines = shift;
                 sub { s/^\s+// for @{ $lines },
                 return undef;
             });

       "$parser->expand_verbatim_tabs( n )"
           Default: 8

           If after any stripping of indentation in verbatim blocks, there remain tabs, this method call
           indicates what to do with them.  0 means leave them as tabs, any other number indicates that each tab
           is to be translated so as to have tab stops every "n" columns.

           This is independent of other methods (except that it operates after any verbatim input stripping is
           done).

           Like the other methods, the input parameter is not checked for validity.  "undef" or containing non-
           digits has the same effect as 8.

TERTIARY METHODS

       "$parser->abandon_output_fh()"
           Cancel output to the file handle. Any POD read by the $parser is not effected.

       "$parser->abandon_output_string()"
           Cancel output to the output string. Any POD read by the $parser is not effected.

       "$parser->accept_code( @codes )"
           Alias for accept_codes.

       "$parser->accept_codes( @codes )"
           Allows $parser to accept a list of "Formatting Codes" in perlpod. This can be used to implement user-
           defined codes.

       "$parser->accept_directive_as_data( @directives )"
           Allows $parser to accept a list of directives for data paragraphs. A directive is the label of a
           "Command Paragraph" in perlpod. A data paragraph is one delimited by "=begin/=for/=end" directives.
           This can be used to implement user-defined directives.

       "$parser->accept_directive_as_processed( @directives )"
           Allows $parser to accept a list of directives for processed paragraphs. A directive is the label of a
           "Command Paragraph" in perlpod. A processed paragraph is also known as "Ordinary Paragraph" in
           perlpod. This can be used to implement user-defined directives.

       "$parser->accept_directive_as_verbatim( @directives )"
           Allows $parser to accept a list of directives for "Verbatim Paragraph" in perlpod. A directive is the
           label of a "Command Paragraph" in perlpod. This can be used to implement user-defined directives.

       "$parser->accept_target( @targets )"
           Alias for accept_targets.

       "$parser->accept_target_as_text( @targets )"
           Alias for accept_targets_as_text.

       "$parser->accept_targets( @targets )"
           Accepts targets for "=begin/=for/=end" sections of the POD.

       "$parser->accept_targets_as_text( @targets )"
           Accepts targets for "=begin/=for/=end" sections that should be parsed as POD. For details, see "About
           Data Paragraphs" in perlpodspec.

       "$parser->any_errata_seen()"
           Used to check if any errata was seen.

           Example:

             die "too many errors\n" if $parser->any_errata_seen();

       "$parser->errata_seen()"
           Returns a hash reference of all errata seen, both whines and screams. The hash reference's keys are
           the line number and the value is an array reference of the errors for that line.

           Example:

             if ( $parser->any_errata_seen() ) {
                $logger->log( $parser->errata_seen() );
             }

       "$parser->detected_encoding()"
           Return the encoding corresponding to "=encoding", but only if the encoding was recognized and
           handled.

       "$parser->encoding()"
           Return encoding of the document, even if the encoding is not correctly handled.

       "$parser->parse_from_file( $source, $to )"
           Parses from $source file to $to file. Similar to "parse_from_file" in Pod::Parser.

       "$parser->scream( @error_messages )"
           Log an error that can't be ignored.

       "$parser->unaccept_code( @codes )"
           Alias for unaccept_codes.

       "$parser->unaccept_codes( @codes )"
           Removes @codes as valid codes for the parse.

       "$parser->unaccept_directive( @directives )"
           Alias for unaccept_directives.

       "$parser->unaccept_directives( @directives )"
           Removes @directives as valid directives for the parse.

       "$parser->unaccept_target( @targets )"
           Alias for unaccept_targets.

       "$parser->unaccept_targets( @targets )"
           Removes @targets as valid targets for the parse.

       "$parser->version_report()"
           Returns a string describing the version.

       "$parser->whine( @error_messages )"
           Log an error unless "$parser->no_whining( TRUE );".

ENCODING

       The Pod::Simple parser expects to read octets.  The parser will decode the octets into Perl's internal
       character string representation using the value of the "=encoding" declaration in the POD source.

       If the POD source does not include an "=encoding" declaration, the parser will attempt to guess the
       encoding (selecting one of UTF-8 or CP 1252) by examining the first non-ASCII bytes and applying the
       heuristic described in perlpodspec.  (If the POD source contains only ASCII bytes, the encoding is
       assumed to be ASCII.)

       If you set the "parse_characters" option to a true value the parser will expect characters rather than
       octets; will ignore any "=encoding"; and will make no attempt to decode the input.

SEE ALSO

       Pod::Simple::Subclassing

       perlpod

       perlpodspec

       Pod::Escapes

       perldoc

SUPPORT

       Questions or discussion about POD and Pod::Simple should be sent to the pod-people@perl.org mail list.
       Send an empty email to pod-people-subscribe@perl.org to subscribe.

       This module is managed in an open GitHub repository, <https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple/>. Feel free
       to fork and contribute, or to clone <git://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple.git> and send patches!

       Please use <https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple/issues/new> to file a bug report.

COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMERS

       Copyright (c) 2002 Sean M. Burke.

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl
       itself.

       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even
       the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

AUTHOR

       Pod::Simple was created by Sean M. Burke <sburke@cpan.org>.  But don't bother him, he's retired.

       Pod::Simple is maintained by:

       •   Allison Randal "allison@perl.org"

       •   Hans Dieter Pearcey "hdp@cpan.org"

       •   David E. Wheeler "dwheeler@cpan.org"

       •   Karl Williamson "khw@cpan.org"

       Documentation has been contributed by:

       •   Gabor Szabo "szabgab@gmail.com"

       •   Shawn H Corey  "SHCOREY at cpan.org"