pod::usage "-sections" not working

[johnguillory]

Howdy Cowboys:

I can't get the "-sections" option to work when targeting pod sections. See abstracted code below. Thanks for insight.

use Pod::usage;
use Getopt::Long;
GetOptions("help");

=head1 SYNOPSIS
         here's the main usage stuff

=head1 SPECIAL
        special usage stuff here...

=cut

# This prints SYNOPSIS above just fine as expected:
pod2usage(-verbose => 0) if ($opt_help);  

# This only prints the '-message' and nothing else:
pod2usage({-verbose = > 99,
           -sections => [qw(SPECIAL)],
           -message => "Here's special stuff...\n";
          });

[toolic]

After fixing several syntax errors in your code, I get -special to work by adding a blank line after each =head1 line:

use warnings;
use strict;
use Pod::Usage;
use Getopt::Long;

GetOptions("help");

=head1 SYNOPSIS

         here's the main usage stuff

=head1 SPECIAL

        special usage stuff here...

=cut

# This prints SYNOPSIS above just fine as expected:
#pod2usage(-verbose => 0) if ($opt_help);  

# This only prints the '-message' and nothing else:
pod2usage({-verbose => 99,
           -sections => [qw(SPECIAL)],
           -message => "Here's special stuff...\n",
          });

__END__

Here's special stuff...

Special:
            special usage stuff here...

You should use podchecker on your code:

*** WARNING: empty section in previous paragraph at line ... in file .
+..

[johnguillory]

Weird...I've copied your code and still getting just the message and not the pod section "special". No doubt I must be overlooking something simple. I'll look some more. Thanks toolic. J

[ww]

If what you say is based on accurate copy/test of toolic's code, then next you'd best tell us about any and ALL untoward outputs.

Better yet, you might want to walk thru your/toolic's code with the debugger and tell us what that discloses.

[Khen1950fx]

It should be something simple. Try this for the SPECIAL section:

#!/usr/bin/perl

BEGIN {
    $|  = 1;
    $^W = 1;
}

use strict;
use warnings;
use Pod::Usage;
use Getopt::Long;

my $help = 0;

pod2usage(2) unless GetOptions('help|?' => \$help);

my $verbose      = 99;
my $message_text = "special usage stuff here...\n";
my $sections     = 'SPECIAL';

pod2usage(
    -verbose  => $verbose,
    -message  => $message_text,
    -sections => $sections,
); 

__END__

=head1 SYNOPSIS
    
    here's the main usage stuff

=head1 SPECIAL
    
    special usage stuff here...

=cut

[Anonymous Monk]

FYI, this is how your failing pod is parsed

$ perl -MPod::Simple::DumpAsXML -e  " Pod::Simple::DumpAsXML->filter(s
+hift)->any_errata_seen" udge
<Document start_line="5">
  <head1 start_line="5">
    SYNOPSIS here&#39;s the main usage stuff
  </head1>
  <head1 start_line="8">
    SPECIAL special usage stuff here...
  </head1>
</Document>

Corrected pod, like toolic wrote, with the head sections being one word strings :)

$ perl -MPod::Simple::DumpAsXML -e  " Pod::Simple::DumpAsXML->filter(s
+hift)->any_errata_seen" udge
<Document start_line="5">
  <head1 start_line="5">
    SYNOPSIS
  </head1>
  <VerbatimFormatted start_line="7" xml:space="preserve">
         here&#39;s the main usage stuff
  </VerbatimFormatted>
  <head1 start_line="9">
    SPECIAL
  </head1>
  <VerbatimFormatted start_line="11" xml:space="preserve">
        special usage stuff here...
  </VerbatimFormatted>
</Document>

In pod, empty line is paragraph separator, perlpod, perlpodspec