I've also longed for a feature like this. I just cobbled this together, maybe this would be useful for you:
use strict;
use IO::File;
my $PODDIR = '/usr/share/perl/5.8.8/pod/';
my $CACHEDIR = "$ENV{HOME}/.podcache";
opendir(my $dir,$PODDIR) or die("failed to open pod directory");
unless(-d $CACHEDIR){
mkdir($CACHEDIR) or die("failed to build cache directory");
}
while(my $f=readdir($dir)){
next unless $f =~ /\.pod$/;
my $cache_file = "$CACHEDIR/$f.txt";
next if -f $cache_file;
my $cache_fh = IO::File->new($cache_file,"w") or die("failed to buil
+d cachefile $cache_file");
my @pod = `perldoc -t $PODDIR/$f`;
for my $line (@pod){
print $cache_fh $line;
}
}
my $pattern = $ARGV[0];
print `grep -r $pattern $CACHEDIR`
Set $PODDIR and $CACHEDIR to whatever values make sense on your system. And Here's how to use it. It accepts patterns grep accepts
username@servername$ perl podsearch qr/.*/
/home/username/.podcache/perl561delta.pod.txt: Dumping "qr//" o
+bjects works correctly.
/home/username/.podcache/perl5005delta.pod.txt: "lock" keyword", an
+d "New "qr//" operator".
/home/username/.podcache/perl5005delta.pod.txt: See "New "qr//"
+ operator".
/home/username/.podcache/perl5005delta.pod.txt: New "qr//" operator
/home/username/.podcache/perl5005delta.pod.txt: The "qr//" operator
+, which is syntactically similar to the other
/home/username/.podcache/perl56delta.pod.txt: Dumping "qr//" ob
+jects works correctly.
/home/username/.podcache/perl571delta.pod.txt: use MyFilter
+ qr/red/ => 'green';
/home/username/.podcache/perl571delta.pod.txt:
+case qr/\w+/ { print "pattern" }
/home/username/.podcache/perl58delta.pod.txt: use MyFilter
+qr/red/ => 'green';
/home/username/.podcache/perl58delta.pod.txt: c
+ase qr/\w+/ { print "pattern" }
/home/username/.podcache/perlfaq6.pod.txt: separa
+tor => qr/\s*,\s*/,
/home/username/.podcache/perlfaq6.pod.txt: The qr// operator showed
+ up in perl 5.005. It compiles a regular
/home/username/.podcache/perlfaq6.pod.txt: @patterns = map { qr
+/\b$_\b/i } qw( foo bar baz );
/home/username/.podcache/perlfaq7.pod.txt: sufficiently recent
+as to support the "qr//" construct, pass around
/home/username/.podcache/perlfaq7.pod.txt: using "qr//":
/home/username/.podcache/perlfaq7.pod.txt: $match = compare
+("old McDonald", qr/d.*D/i);
/home/username/.podcache/perlfaq7.pod.txt: Notice how "qr//" al
+lows flags at the end. That pattern was compiled
/home/username/.podcache/perlfaq7.pod.txt: at compile time, alt
+hough it was executed later. The nifty "qr//"
/home/username/.podcache/perlfaq7.pod.txt: here it is again if
+you don't have "qr//":
/home/username/.podcache/perlfunc.pod.txt: "m//", "pos", "quote
+meta", "s///", "split", "study", "qr//"
/home/username/.podcache/perlfunc.pod.txt: qr/STRING/
/home/username/.podcache/perlglossary.pod.txt: "q//", "qq//", "
+qx//", "qw//", "qr//", "m//", "s///", "y///", and
/home/username/.podcache/perlguts.pod.txt: r PERL_MAGIC_qr
+ vtbl_qr precompiled qr// regex
/home/username/.podcache/perlop.pod.txt: change them, Perl
+won't even notice. See also "qr/STRING/imosx".
/home/username/.podcache/perlop.pod.txt: qr/STRING/imosx
/home/username/.podcache/perlop.pod.txt: $rex = qr/my.S
+TRING/is;
/home/username/.podcache/perlop.pod.txt: $re = qr/$patt
+ern/;
/home/username/.podcache/perlop.pod.txt: my @compil
+ed = map qr/$_/i, @$patterns;
/home/username/.podcache/perlre.pod.txt: "s///", "qr//" and "??" in
+ "Regexp Quote-Like Operators" in perlop.
/home/username/.podcache/perlre.pod.txt: used (see re), o
+r the variables contain results of "qr//"
/home/username/.podcache/perlre.pod.txt: operator (see "q
+r/STRING/imosx" in perlop).
/home/username/.podcache/perlre.pod.txt: 'Y|' =>
+qr/(?=\S)(?<!\S)|(?!\S)(?<=\S)/ );
/home/username/.podcache/perlreref.pod.txt: qr/pattern/imsox lets
+ you store a regex in a variable,
/home/username/.podcache/perlretut.pod.txt: part of the "m//", "s//
+/", "qr//" and "split" operators and so this
/home/username/.podcache/perlretut.pod.txt: can be stored once and
+used again and again. The regexp quote "qr//"
/home/username/.podcache/perlretut.pod.txt: does exactly that: "qr/
+string/" compiles the "string" as a regexp and
/home/username/.podcache/perlretut.pod.txt: $reg = qr/foo+bar?/
+; # reg contains a compiled regexp
/home/username/.podcache/perlretut.pod.txt: @compiled = map qr/
+$_/, @regexp;
/home/username/.podcache/perlretut.pod.txt: $pat = qr/(?{ $foo
+= 1 })/; # precompile code regexp
/home/username/.podcache/perltoc.pod.txt: 'STRING', qq/STRI
+NG/ , "STRING", qr/STRING/imosx , qx/STRING/ ,
/home/username/.podcache/perltoc.pod.txt: ARRAY,LIST , , q/
+STRING/, qq/STRING/, qr/STRING/, qx/STRING/,
/home/username/.podcache/perltoc.pod.txt: New "qr//" operator
/home/username/.podcache/perltoc.pod.txt: As a simple string, A
+s a qr// compiled regular expression, e.g.:, As
/home/username/.podcache/perltoc.pod.txt: As a simple string, A
+s a qr// compiled regular expression, e.g.:, As
Shelling out with a tainted variable like $ARGV[0] is not particularly safe. So you'll probably want to play with sanitizing that variable. | 