perldoc [-h] [-D] [-t] [-u] [-m] [-l] [-U] [-F]
[-i] [-V] [-T] [-r]
[-d destination_file]
[-o formatname]
[-M FormatterClassName]
[-w formatteroption:value]
[-n nroff-replacement]
[-X]
[-L language_code]
PageName|ModuleName|ProgramName|URL
Examples:
perldoc -f BuiltinFunction
perldoc -L it -f BuiltinFunction
perldoc -q FAQ Keyword
perldoc -L fr -q FAQ Keyword
perldoc -v PerlVariable
perldoc -a PerlAPI
See below for more description of the switches.
perldoc -f sprintf
#-q perlfaq-search-regexp
The -q option takes a regular expression as an argument. It will search the question headings in perlfaq[1-9] and print the entries matching the regular expression.
Example:
perldoc -q shuffle
#-a perlapifunc
The -a option followed by the name of a perl api function will extract the documentation of this function from perlapi.
Example:
perldoc -a newHV
#-v perlvar
The -v option followed by the name of a Perl predefined variable will extract the documentation of this variable from perlvar.
Examples:
perldoc -v '$"'
perldoc -v @+
perldoc -v DATA
#-T
This specifies that the output is not to be sent to a pager, but is to be sent directly to STDOUT.
#-d destination-filename
This specifies that the output is to be sent neither to a pager nor to STDOUT, but is to be saved to the specified filename. Example: perldoc -oLaTeX -dtex
twrapdocs.tex Text::Wrap
#-o output-formatname
This specifies that you want Perldoc to try using a Pod-formatting class for the output format that you specify. For example: -oman
. This is actually just a wrapper around the -M
switch; using -oformatname
just looks for a loadable class by adding that format name (with different capitalizations) to the end of different classname prefixes.
For example, -oLaTeX
currently tries all of the following classes: Pod::Perldoc::ToLaTeX Pod::Perldoc::Tolatex Pod::Perldoc::ToLatex Pod::Perldoc::ToLATEX Pod::Simple::LaTeX Pod::Simple::latex Pod::Simple::Latex Pod::Simple::LATEX Pod::LaTeX Pod::latex Pod::Latex Pod::LATEX.
#-M module-name
This specifies the module that you want to try using for formatting the pod. The class must at least provide a parse_from_fi
le
method. For example: perldoc
-MPod::Perldoc::ToChecker
.
You can specify several classes to try by joining them with commas or semicolons, as in -MTk:
:SuperPod;Tk::Pod
.
#-w option:valueor-w option
This specifies an option to call the formatter with. For example, -w textsize:15
will call $f
ormatter->textsize(15)
on the formatter object before it is used to format the object. For this to be valid, the formatter class must provide such a method, and the value you pass should be valid. (So if textsize
expects an integer, and you do -w te
xtsize:big
, expect trouble.)
You can use -w optionname
(without a value) as shorthand for -
w optionname:TRUE
. This is presumably useful in cases of on/off features like: -w page_number
ing
.
You can use an "=" instead of the ":", as in: -w textsize=15
. This might be more (or less) convenient, depending on what shell you use.
#-X
Use an index if it is present. The -X option looks for an entry whose basename matches the name given on the command line in the file $Config{archlib}/pod.
idx
. The pod.idx file should contain fully qualified filenames, one per line.
#-L language_code
This allows one to specify the language code for the desired language translation. If the POD
2::<language_code>
package isn't installed in your system, the switch is ignored. All available translation packages are to be found under the POD2::
namespace. See POD2::IT (orPOD2::FR) to see how to create new localized POD2::*
documentation packages and integrate them into Pod::Perldoc.
#PageName|ModuleName|ProgramName|URL
The item you want to look up. Nested modules (such as File::Ba
sename
) are specified either as File::Basename
orFile/Basename
. You may also give a descriptive name of a page, such as perlfu
nc
. For URLs, HTTP and HTTPS are the only kind currently supported.
For simple names like 'foo', when the normal search fails to find a matching page, a search with the "perl" prefix is tried as well. So "perldoc intro" is enough to find/render "perlintro.pod".
#-n some-formatter
Specify replacement for groff
#-r
Recursive search.
#-i
Ignore case.
#-V
Displays the version of perldoc you're running.
-U
option if you do not want this behavior but beware that there are significant security risks if you choose to use -U
.
Since 3.26, using -F
as the superuser also implies -U
as opening most files and traversing directories requires privileges that are above the nobody/nogroup level.
PERLDOC
environment variable will be used before the command line arguments.
Useful values for PERLDOC
include -oterm
, -otext
, -ortf
, -oxml
, and so on, depending on what modules you have on hand; or the formatter class may be specified exactly with -MPod::Perldoc::ToTe
rm
or the like.
perldoc
also searches directories specified by the PERL5LIB
(orPE
RLLIB
ifPERL5LIB
is not defined) and PATH
environment variables. (The latter is so that embedded pods for executables, such as per
ldoc
itself, are available.)
In directories where either Make
file.PL
orBuild.PL
exist, perldoc
will add .
and lib
first to its search path, and as long as you're not the superuser will add bl
ib
too. This is really helpful if you're working inside of a build directory and want to read through the docs even if you have a version of a module previously installed.
perldoc
will use, in order of preference, the pager defined in P
ERLDOC_PAGER
, MANPAGER
, or PAGER
before trying to find a pager on its own. (MANPAGER
is not used if perldoc
was told to display plain text or unformatted pod.)
When using perldoc in it's-m
mode (display module source code), perldoc
will attempt to use the pager set in PERLDOC_SRC_PAGER
. A useful setting for this command is your favorite editor as in /usr/bin/nano
. (Don't judge me.)
One useful value for PERLDOC_PAG
ER
isless -+C -E
.
Having PERLDOCDEBUG set to a positive integer will make perldoc emit even more descriptive output than the -D
switch does; the higher the number, the more it emits.
<
mallen@cpan.org>
Past contributors are: brian d foy <bdfoy@cpan.org>
Adriano R. Ferreira <ferreira@cpan.org>
, Sean M. Burke <sburke@cpan.org>
, Kenneth Albanowski <kjahds@kjahds.
com>
, Andy Dougherty <doughera@l
afcol.lafayette.edu>
, and many others.
Perldoc Browser is maintained by Dan Book (DBOOK). Please contact him via the GitHub issue trackeroremail regarding any issues with the site itself, search, or rendering of documentation.
The Perl documentation is maintained by the Perl 5 Porters in the development of Perl. Please contact them via the Perl issue tracker, the mailing list, or IRC to report any issues with the contents or format of the documentation.