PERLDOC(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLDOC(1) #

PERLDOC(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLDOC(1)

NNAAMMEE #

 perldoc - Look up Perl documentation in Pod format.

SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS #

     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.

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN #

 ppeerrllddoocc looks up documentation in .pod format that is embedded in the
 perl installation tree or in a perl script, and displays it using a
 variety of formatters.  This is primarily used for the documentation for
 the perl library modules.

 Your system may also have man pages installed for those modules, in which
 case you can probably just use the mmaann(1) command.

 If you are looking for a table of contents to the Perl library modules
 documentation, see the perltoc page.

OOPPTTIIOONNSS #

 --hh   Prints out a brief hhelp message.

 --DD   DDescribes search for the item in ddetail.

 --tt   Display docs using plain ttext converter, instead of nroff. This may
      be faster, but it probably won't look as nice.

 --uu   Skip the real Pod formatting, and just show the raw Pod source
      (UUnformatted)

 --mm _m_o_d_u_l_e
      Display the entire module: both code and unformatted pod
      documentation.  This may be useful if the docs don't explain a
      function in the detail you need, and you'd like to inspect the code
      directly; perldoc will find the file for you and simply hand it off
      for display.

 --ll   Display onlly the file name of the module found.

 --UU   When running as the superuser, don't attempt drop privileges for
      security.  This option is implied with --FF.

      NNOOTTEE: Please see the heading SECURITY below for more information.

 --FF   Consider arguments as file names; no search in directories will be
      performed.  Implies --UU if run as the superuser.

 --ff _p_e_r_l_f_u_n_c
      The --ff option followed by the name of a perl built-in function will
      extract the documentation of this function from perlfunc.

      Example:

            perldoc -f sprintf

 --qq _p_e_r_l_f_a_q_-_s_e_a_r_c_h_-_r_e_g_e_x_p
      The --qq option takes a regular expression as an argument.  It will
      search the qquestion headings in perlfaq[1-9] and print the entries
      matching the regular expression.

      Example:

           perldoc -q shuffle

 --aa _p_e_r_l_a_p_i_f_u_n_c
      The --aa option followed by the name of a perl api function will
      extract the documentation of this function from perlapi.

      Example:

           perldoc -a newHV

 --vv _p_e_r_l_v_a_r
      The --vv 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

 --TT   This specifies that the output is not to be sent to a pager, but is
      to be sent directly to STDOUT.

 --dd _d_e_s_t_i_n_a_t_i_o_n_-_f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e
      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 -dtextwrapdocs.tex Text::Wrap"

 --oo _o_u_t_p_u_t_-_f_o_r_m_a_t_n_a_m_e
      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
      "-o_f_o_r_m_a_t_n_a_m_e" 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.

 --MM _m_o_d_u_l_e_-_n_a_m_e
      This specifies the module that you want to try using for formatting
      the pod.  The class must at least provide a "parse_from_file"
      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".

 --ww _o_p_t_i_o_n_:_v_a_l_u_e or --ww _o_p_t_i_o_n
      This specifies an option to call the formatter wwith.  For example,
      "-w textsize:15" will call "$formatter->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 textsize:big", expect trouble.)

      You can use "-w optionname" (without a value) as shorthand for "-w
      optionname:_T_R_U_E".  This is presumably useful in cases of on/off
      features like: "-w page_numbering".

      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.

 --XX   Use an index if it is present. The --XX option looks for an entry
      whose basename matches the name given on the command line in the
      file "$Config{archlib}/pod.idx". The _p_o_d_._i_d_x file should contain
      fully qualified filenames, one per line.

 --LL _l_a_n_g_u_a_g_e___c_o_d_e
      This allows one to specify the _l_a_n_g_u_a_g_e _c_o_d_e for the desired
      language translation. If the "POD2::<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 (or POD2::FR) to see how to create new localized
      "POD2::*" documentation packages and integrate them into
      Pod::Perldoc.

 PPaaggeeNNaammee||MMoodduulleeNNaammee||PPrrooggrraammNNaammee||UURRLL
      The item you want to look up.  Nested modules (such as
      "File::Basename") are specified either as "File::Basename" or
      "File/Basename".  You may also give a descriptive name of a page,
      such as "perlfunc".  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".

 --nn _s_o_m_e_-_f_o_r_m_a_t_t_e_r
      Specify replacement for groff

 --rr   Recursive search.

 --ii   Ignore case.

 --VV   Displays the version of perldoc you're running.

SSEECCUURRIITTYY #

 Because ppeerrllddoocc does not run properly tainted, and is known to have
 security issues, when run as the superuser it will attempt to drop
 privileges by setting the effective and real IDs to nobody's or nouser's
 account, or -2 if unavailable.  If it cannot relinquish its privileges,
 it will not run.

 See the "-U" option if you do not want this behavior but bbeewwaarree 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.

EENNVVIIRROONNMMEENNTT #

 Any switches in the "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::ToTerm" or the like.

 "perldoc" also searches directories specified by the "PERL5LIB" (or
 "PERLLIB" if "PERL5LIB" is not defined) and "PATH" environment variables.
 (The latter is so that embedded pods for executables, such as "perldoc"
 itself, are available.)

 In directories where either "Makefile.PL" or "Build.PL" exist, "perldoc"
 will add "." and "lib" first to its search path, and as long as you're
 not the superuser will add "blib" 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
 "PERLDOC_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_PAGER" is "less -+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.

CCHHAANNGGEESS #

 Up to 3.14_05, the switch --vv was used to produce verbose messages of
 ppeerrllddoocc operation, which is now enabled by --DD.

SSEEEE AALLSSOO #

 perlpod, Pod::Perldoc

AAUUTTHHOORR #

 Current maintainer: Mark Allen "<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@lafcol.lafayette.edu>", and many others.

perl v5.36.3 2019-02-13 PERLDOC(1)