PERLPODSTYLE(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLPODSTYLE(1)

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

PERLPODSTYLE(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLPODSTYLE(1)

NNAAMMEE #

 perlpodstyle - Perl POD style guide

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN #

 These are general guidelines for how to write POD documentation for Perl
 scripts and modules, based on general guidelines for writing good UNIX
 man pages.  All of these guidelines are, of course, optional, but
 following them will make your documentation more consistent with other
 documentation on the system.

 The name of the program being documented is conventionally written in
 bold (using B<>) wherever it occurs, as are all program options.
 Arguments should be written in italics (I<>).  Function names are
 traditionally written in italics; if you write a function as ffuunnccttiioonn(()),
 Pod::Man will take care of this for you.  Literal code or commands should
 be in C<>.  References to other man pages should be in the form
 "manpage(section)" or "L<manpage(section)>", and Pod::Man will
 automatically format those appropriately.  The second form, with L<>, is
 used to request that a POD formatter make a link to the man page if
 possible.  As an exception, one normally omits the section when referring
 to module documentation since it's not clear what section module
 documentation will be in; use "L<Module::Name>" for module references
 instead.

 References to other programs or functions are normally in the form of man
 page references so that cross-referencing tools can provide the user with
 links and the like.  It's possible to overdo this, though, so be careful
 not to clutter your documentation with too much markup.  References to
 other programs that are not given as man page references should be
 enclosed in B<>.

 The major headers should be set out using a "=head1" directive, and are
 historically written in the rather startling ALL UPPER CASE format; this
 is not mandatory, but it's strongly recommended so that sections have
 consistent naming across different software packages.  Minor headers may
 be included using "=head2", and are typically in mixed case.

 The standard sections of a manual page are:

NAME #

     Mandatory section; should be a comma-separated list of programs or
     functions documented by this POD page, such as:

         foo, bar - programs to do something

     Manual page indexers are often extremely picky about the format of
     this section, so don't put anything in it except this line.  Every
     program or function documented by this POD page should be listed,
     separated by a comma and a space.  For a Perl module, just give the
     module name.  A single dash, and only a single dash, should separate
     the list of programs or functions from the description.  Do not use
     any markup such as C<> or B<> anywhere in this line.  Functions
     should not be qualified with "()" or the like.  The description
     should ideally fit on a single line, even if a man program replaces
     the dash with a few tabs.

SYNOPSIS #

     A short usage summary for programs and functions.  This section is
     mandatory for section 3 pages.  For Perl module documentation, it's
     usually convenient to have the contents of this section be a verbatim
     block showing some (brief) examples of typical ways the module is
     used.

DESCRIPTION #

     Extended description and discussion of the program or functions, or
     the body of the documentation for man pages that document something
     else.  If particularly long, it's a good idea to break this up into
     subsections "=head2" directives like:

         =head2 Normal Usage

         =head2 Advanced Features

         =head2 Writing Configuration Files

     or whatever is appropriate for your documentation.

     For a module, this is generally where the documentation of the
     interfaces provided by the module goes, usually in the form of a list
     with an "=item" for each interface.  Depending on how many interfaces
     there are, you may want to put that documentation in separate
     METHODS, FUNCTIONS, CLASS METHODS, or INSTANCE METHODS sections
     instead and save the DESCRIPTION section for an overview.

OPTIONS #

     Detailed description of each of the command-line options taken by the
     program.  This should be separate from the description for the use of
     parsers like Pod::Usage.  This is normally presented as a list, with
     each option as a separate "=item".  The specific option string should
     be enclosed in B<>.  Any values that the option takes should be
     enclosed in I<>.  For example, the section for the option
     ----sseeccttiioonn=_m_a_n_e_x_t would be introduced with:

         =item B<--section>=I<manext>

     Synonymous options (like both the short and long forms) are separated
     by a comma and a space on the same "=item" line, or optionally listed
     as their own item with a reference to the canonical name.  For
     example, since ----sseeccttiioonn can also be written as --ss, the above would
     be:

         =item B<-s> I<manext>, B<--section>=I<manext>

     Writing the short option first is recommended because it's easier to
     read.  The long option is long enough to draw the eye to it anyway
     and the short option can otherwise get lost in visual noise.

RETURN VALUE #

     What the program or function returns, if successful.  This section
     can be omitted for programs whose precise exit codes aren't
     important, provided they return 0 on success and non-zero on failure
     as is standard.  It should always be present for functions.  For
     modules, it may be useful to summarize return values from the module
     interface here, or it may be more useful to discuss return values
     separately in the documentation of each function or method the module
     provides.

ERRORS #

     Exceptions, error return codes, exit statuses, and errno settings.
     Typically used for function or module documentation; program
     documentation uses DIAGNOSTICS instead.  The general rule of thumb is
     that errors printed to "STDOUT" or "STDERR" and intended for the end
     user are documented in DIAGNOSTICS while errors passed internal to
     the calling program and intended for other programmers are documented
     in ERRORS.  When documenting a function that sets errno, a full list
     of the possible errno values should be given here.

DIAGNOSTICS #

     All possible messages the program can print out and what they mean.
     You may wish to follow the same documentation style as the Perl
     documentation; see perldiag for more details (and look at the POD
     source as well).

     If applicable, please include details on what the user should do to
     correct the error; documenting an error as indicating "the input
     buffer is too small" without telling the user how to increase the
     size of the input buffer (or at least telling them that it isn't
     possible) aren't very useful.

EXAMPLES #

     Give some example uses of the program or function.  Don't skimp;
     users often find this the most useful part of the documentation.  The
     examples are generally given as verbatim paragraphs.

     Don't just present an example without explaining what it does.
     Adding a short paragraph saying what the example will do can increase
     the value of the example immensely.

ENVIRONMENT #

     Environment variables that the program cares about, normally
     presented as a list using "=over", "=item", and "=back".  For
     example:

         =over 6

         =item HOME

         Used to determine the user's home directory.  F<.foorc> in this
         directory is read for configuration details, if it exists.

         =back

     Since environment variables are normally in all uppercase, no
     additional special formatting is generally needed; they're glaring
     enough as it is.

FILES #

     All files used by the program or function, normally presented as a
     list, and what it uses them for.  File names should be enclosed in
     F<>.  It's particularly important to document files that will be
     potentially modified.

CAVEATS #

     Things to take special care with, sometimes called WARNINGS.

BUGS #

     Things that are broken or just don't work quite right.

RESTRICTIONS #

     Bugs you don't plan to fix.  :-)

NOTES #

     Miscellaneous commentary.

AUTHOR #

     Who wrote it (use AUTHORS for multiple people).  It's a good idea to
     include your current e-mail address (or some e-mail address to which
     bug reports should be sent) or some other contact information so that
     users have a way of contacting you.  Remember that program
     documentation tends to roam the wild for far longer than you expect
     and pick a contact method that's likely to last.

HISTORY #

     Programs derived from other sources sometimes have this.  Some people
     keep a modification log here, but that usually gets long and is
     normally better maintained in a separate file.
     For copyright

         Copyright YEAR(s) YOUR NAME(s)

     (No, (C) is not needed.  No, "all rights reserved" is not needed.)

     For licensing the easiest way is to use the same licensing as Perl
     itself:

         This library is free software; you may redistribute it and/or
         modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

     This makes it easy for people to use your module with Perl.  Note
     that this licensing example is neither an endorsement or a
     requirement, you are of course free to choose any licensing.

SEE ALSO #

     Other man pages to check out, like mmaann(1), mmaann(7), mmaakkeewwhhaattiiss(8), or
     ccaattmmaann(8).  Normally a simple list of man pages separated by commas,
     or a paragraph giving the name of a reference work.  Man page
     references, if they use the standard "name(section)" form, don't have
     to be enclosed in L<> (although it's recommended), but other things
     in this section probably should be when appropriate.

     If the package has a mailing list, include a URL or subscription
     instructions here.

     If the package has a web site, include a URL here.

 Documentation of object-oriented libraries or modules may want to use
 CONSTRUCTORS and METHODS sections, or CLASS METHODS and INSTANCE METHODS
 sections, for detailed documentation of the parts of the library and save
 the DESCRIPTION section for an overview.  Large modules with a function
 interface may want to use FUNCTIONS for similar reasons.  Some people use
 OVERVIEW to summarize the description if it's quite long.

 Section ordering varies, although NAME must always be the first section
 (you'll break some man page systems otherwise), and NAME, SYNOPSIS,
 DESCRIPTION, and OPTIONS generally always occur first and in that order
 if present.  In general, SEE ALSO, AUTHOR, and similar material should be
 left for last.  Some systems also move WARNINGS and NOTES to last.  The
 order given above should be reasonable for most purposes.

 Some systems use CONFORMING TO to note conformance to relevant standards
 and MT-LEVEL to note safeness for use in threaded programs or signal
 handlers.  These headings are primarily useful when documenting parts of
 a C library.

 Finally, as a general note, try not to use an excessive amount of markup.
 As documented here and in Pod::Man, you can safely leave Perl variables,
 function names, man page references, and the like unadorned by markup and
 the POD translators will figure it out for you.  This makes it much
 easier to later edit the documentation.  Note that many existing
 translators will do the wrong thing with e-mail addresses when wrapped in
 L<>, so don't do that.

AAUUTTHHOORR #

 Russ Allbery <rra@cpan.org>, with large portions of this documentation
 taken from the documentation of the original ppoodd22mmaann implementation by
 Larry Wall and Tom Christiansen.

CCOOPPYYRRIIGGHHTT AANNDD LLIICCEENNSSEE #

 Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2018 Russ
 Allbery <rra@cpan.org>

 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are
 permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and
 this notice are preserved.  This file is offered as-is, without any
 warranty.

 SPDX-License-Identifier: FSFAP

SSEEEE AALLSSOO #

 For additional information that may be more accurate for your specific
 system, see either mmaann(5) or mmaann(7) depending on your system manual
 section numbering conventions.

 This documentation is maintained as part of the podlators distribution.
 The current version is always available from its web site at
 <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/software/podlators/>.

perl v5.36.3 2023-02-15 PERLPODSTYLE(1)