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This module allows you to write scripts which contain their own documentation internally using Pod markup.

The documentation can then be displayed to a user without having to write your own "print" statements, or duplication.

Requirements

None. (Ships as part of Perl 5.8 5.6.)

Who Should Use It

Anybody who is writing complex command-line scripts which would benefit from included documentation, and who doesn't wish to describe the programs command line arguments more than once.

Bad Points

None that I could tell.

Example
#!/usr/bin/perl -w =head1 NAME pod-usage - A simple program with its own documentation. =head1 SYNOPSIS pod-usage [options] Help Options: --help Show this scripts help information. --manual Read this scripts manual. --version Show the version number and exit. =cut =head1 OPTIONS =over 8 =item B<--help> Show the brief help information. =item B<--manual> Read the manual, with examples. =item B<--version> Show the version number and exit. =back =cut =head1 EXAMPLES The following is an example of this script: pod-usage.pl --help =cut =head1 DESCRIPTION This is a simple demonstration program for Pod::Usage, this text will be displayed if the script is invoked with '--manual'. =cut =head1 AUTHOR Steve -- http://www.steve.org.uk/ $Id: pod-usage,v 1.79 2006/01/07 23:23:12 steve Exp $ =cut use strict; use Getopt::Long; use Pod::Usage; # # Release number. # my $RELEASE = '0.8'; # # Parse command line arguments. These override the values from the # configuration file. # parseCommandLineArguments(); # # Do more stuff .. # # # All done # exit; =head2 parseCommandLineArguments Parse the arguments specified upon the command line. =cut sub parseCommandLineArguments { my $HELP = 0; # Show help overview. my $MANUAL = 0; # Show manual my $VERSION = 0; # Show version number and exit. # Parse options. # GetOptions( "help", \$HELP, "manual", \$MANUAL, "version", \$VERSION ); pod2usage(1) if $HELP; pod2usage(-verbose => 2 ) if $MANUAL; if ( $VERSION ) { my $REVISION = '$Id: pod-usage,v 1.79 2006/01/07 23:23:12 ste +ve Exp $'; $VERSION = join (' ', (split (' ', $REVISION))[2]); $VERSION =~ s/,v\b//; $VERSION =~ s/(\S+)$/$1/; print "pod-usage release $RELEASE - CVS: $VERSION\n"; exit; } }
Notes

Once I started using this module I found that it was incredible easy to start writing documentation for functions and little tutorials inside my code.

The fact that the '--manual' flag, (or whatever you like), can be made to display the Pod text from your script is very useful.


In reply to Pod::Usage by skx

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post; it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
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  • Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.
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