pod2text - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text


SYNOPSIS

       pod2text [-aclst] [-i indent] [-w width] [input [output]]

       pod2text -h


DESCRIPTION

       pod2text is a front-end for Pod::Text and its subclasses.
       It uses them to generate formatted ASCII text from POD
       source.  It can optionally use either termcap sequences or
       ANSI color escape sequences to format the text.

       input is the file to read for POD source (the POD can be
       embedded in code).  If input isn't given, it defaults to
       STDIN.  output, if given, is the file to which to write
       the formatted output.  If output isn't given, the format­
       ted output is written to STDOUT.


OPTIONS

       -a, --alt
           Use an alternate output format that, among other
           things, uses a different heading style and marks
           `=item' entries with a colon in the left margin.

       -c, --color
           Format the output with ANSI color escape sequences.
           Using this option requires that Term::ANSIColor be
           installed on your system.

       -i indent, --indent=indent
           Set the number of spaces to indent regular text, and
           the default indentation for `=over' blocks.  Defaults
           to 4 spaces if this option isn't given.

       -h, --help
           Print out usage information and exit.

       -l, --loose
           Print a blank line after a `=head1' heading.  Nor­
           mally, no blank line is printed after `=head1',
           although one is still printed after `=head2', because
           this is the expected formatting for manual pages; if
           you're formatting arbitrary text documents, using this
           option is recommended.

       -s, --sentence
           Assume each sentence ends with two spaces and try to
           preserve that spacing.  Without this option, all con­
           secutive whitespace in non-verbatim paragraphs is com­
           pressed into a single space.

           Try to determine the width of the screen and the bold
           and underline sequences for the terminal from termcap,
           and use that information in formatting the output.
           Output will be wrapped at two columns less than the
           width of your terminal device.  Using this option
           requires that your system have a termcap file some­
           where where Term::Cap can find it and requires that
           your system support termios.  With this option, the
           output of pod2text will contain terminal control
           sequences for your current terminal type.

       -w, --width=width, -width
           The column at which to wrap text on the right-hand
           side.  Defaults to 76, unless -t is given, in which
           case it's two columns less than the width of your ter­
           minal device.


DIAGNOSTICS

       If pod2text fails with errors, see the Pod::Text manpage
       and the Pod::Parser manpage for information about what
       those errors might mean.  Internally, it can also produce
       the following diagnostics:

       -c (--color) requires Term::ANSIColor be installed
           (F) -c or --color were given, but Term::ANSIColor
           could not be loaded.

       Unknown option: %s
           (F) An unknown command line option was given.

       In addition, other Getopt::Long error messages may result
       from invalid command-line options.


ENVIRONMENT

       COLUMNS
           If -t is given, pod2text will take the current width
           of your screen from this environment variable, if
           available.  It overrides terminal width information in
           TERMCAP.

       TERMCAP
           If -t is given, pod2text will use the contents of this
           environment variable if available to determine the
           correct formatting sequences for your current terminal
           device.


SEE ALSO

       Pod::Text, Pod::Text::Color, Pod::Text::Termcap,
       Pod::Parser


AUTHOR

       Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>.


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