NAME¶
Pod::Simple::Search - find POD documents in directory trees
SYNOPSIS¶
use Pod::Simple::Search;
my $name2path = Pod::Simple::Search->new->limit_glob('LWP::*')->survey;
print "Looky see what I found: ",
join(' ', sort keys %$name2path), "\n";
print "LWPUA docs = ",
Pod::Simple::Search->new->find('LWP::UserAgent') || "?",
"\n";
DESCRIPTION¶
Pod::Simple::Search is a class that you use for running searches for Pod
files. An object of this class has several attributes (mostly options for
controlling search options), and some methods for searching based on those
attributes.
The way to use this class is to make a new object of this class, set any
options, and then call one of the search options (probably "survey"
or "find"). The sections below discuss the syntaxes for doing all
that.
CONSTRUCTOR¶
This class provides the one constructor, called "new". It takes no
parameters:
use Pod::Simple::Search;
my $search = Pod::Simple::Search->new;
ACCESSORS¶
This class defines several methods for setting (and, occasionally, reading) the
contents of an object. With two exceptions (discussed at the end of this
section), these attributes are just for controlling the way searches are
carried out.
Note that each of these return $self when you call them as "$self->
whatever(value)". That's so that you can chain together
set-attribute calls like this:
my $name2path =
Pod::Simple::Search->new
-> inc(0) -> verbose(1) -> callback(\&blab)
->survey(@there);
...which works exactly as if you'd done this:
my $search = Pod::Simple::Search->new;
$search->inc(0);
$search->verbose(1);
$search->callback(\&blab);
my $name2path = $search->survey(@there);
- $search->inc( true-or-false );
- This attribute, if set to a true value, means that searches should
implicitly add perl's @INC paths. This automatically
considers paths specified in the "PERL5LIB" environment as this
is prepended to @INC by the Perl interpreter itself.
This attribute's default value is TRUE. If you want to search only
specific directories, set $self-> inc(0) before calling
$inc->survey or $inc->find.
- $search->verbose( nonnegative-number );
- This attribute, if set to a nonzero positive value, will make searches
output (via "warn") notes about what they're doing as they do
it. This option may be useful for debugging a pod-related module. This
attribute's default value is zero, meaning that no "warn"
messages are produced. (Setting verbose to 1 turns on some messages, and
setting it to 2 turns on even more messages, i.e., makes the following
search(es) even more verbose than 1 would make them.)
- $search->limit_glob( some-glob-string );
- This option means that you want to limit the results just to items whose
podnames match the given glob/wildcard expression. For example, you might
limit your search to just "LWP::*", to search only for modules
starting with "LWP::*" (but not including the module
"LWP" itself); or you might limit your search to "LW*"
to see only modules whose (full) names begin with "LW"; or you
might search for "*Find*" to search for all modules with
"Find" somewhere in their full name. (You can also use
"?" in a glob expression; so "DB?" will match
"DBI" and "DBD".)
- $search->callback( \&some_routine );
- This attribute means that every time this search sees a matching Pod file,
it should call this callback routine. The routine is called with two
parameters: the current file's filespec, and its pod name. (For example:
"("/etc/perljunk/File/Crunk.pm",
"File::Crunk")" would be in @_.)
The callback routine's return value is not used for anything.
This attribute's default value is false, meaning that no callback is
called.
- $search->laborious( true-or-false );
- Unless you set this attribute to a true value, Pod::Search will apply
Perl-specific heuristics to find the correct module PODs quickly. This
attribute's default value is false. You won't normally need to set this to
true.
Specifically: Turning on this option will disable the heuristics for seeing
only files with Perl-like extensions, omitting subdirectories that are
numeric but do not match the current Perl interpreter's version ID,
suppressing site_perl as a module hierarchy name, etc.
- $search->shadows( true-or-false );
- Unless you set this attribute to a true value, Pod::Simple::Search will
consider only the first file of a given modulename as it looks thru the
specified directories; that is, with this option off, if
Pod::Simple::Search has seen a "somepathdir/Foo/Bar.pm" already
in this search, then it won't bother looking at a
"somelaterpathdir/Foo/Bar.pm" later on in that search, because
that file is merely a "shadow". But if you turn on
"$self->shadows(1)", then these "shadow" files are
inspected too, and are noted in the pathname2podname return hash.
This attribute's default value is false; and normally you won't need to turn
it on.
- $search->limit_re( some-regxp );
- Setting this attribute (to a value that's a regexp) means that you want to
limit the results just to items whose podnames match the given regexp.
Normally this option is not needed, and the more efficient
"limit_glob" attribute is used instead.
- $search->dir_prefix( some-string-value );
- Setting this attribute to a string value means that the searches should
begin in the specified subdirectory name (like "Pod" or
"File::Find", also expressible as "File/Find"). For
example, the search option
"$search->limit_glob("File::Find::R*")" is the same
as the combination of the search options
"$search->limit_re("^File::Find::R") ->
dir_prefix("File::Find")".
Normally you don't need to know about the "dir_prefix" option, but
I include it in case it might prove useful for someone somewhere.
(Implementationally, searching with limit_glob ends up setting limit_re and
usually dir_prefix.)
- $search->progress( some-progress-object );
- If you set a value for this attribute, the value is expected to be an
object (probably of a class that you define) that has a "reach"
method and a "done" method. This is meant for reporting progress
during the search, if you don't want to use a simple callback.
Normally you don't need to know about the "progress" option, but I
include it in case it might prove useful for someone somewhere.
While a search is in progress, the progress object's "reach" and
"done" methods are called like this:
# Every time a file is being scanned for pod:
$progress->reach($count, "Scanning $file"); ++$count;
# And then at the end of the search:
$progress->done("Noted $count Pod files total");
Internally, we often set this to an object of class Pod::Simple::Progress.
That class is probably undocumented, but you may wish to look at its
source.
- $name2path = $self->name2path;
- This attribute is not a search parameter, but is used to report the result
of "survey" method, as discussed in the next section.
- $path2name = $self->path2name;
- This attribute is not a search parameter, but is used to report the result
of "survey" method, as discussed in the next section.
MAIN SEARCH METHODS¶
Once you've actually set any options you want (if any), you can go ahead and use
the following methods to search for Pod files in particular ways.
"$search->survey( @directories )"¶
The method "survey" searches for POD documents in a given set of files
and/or directories. This runs the search according to the various options set
by the accessors above. (For example, if the "inc" attribute is on,
as it is by default, then the perl @INC directories are implicitly added to
the list of directories (if any) that you specify.)
The return value of "survey" is two hashes:
- "name2path"
- A hash that maps from each pod-name to the filespec (like
"Stuff::Thing" =>
"/whatever/plib/Stuff/Thing.pm")
- "path2name"
- A hash that maps from each Pod filespec to its pod-name (like
"/whatever/plib/Stuff/Thing.pm" =>
"Stuff::Thing")
Besides saving these hashes as the hashref attributes "name2path" and
"path2name", calling this function also returns these hashrefs. In
list context, the return value of "$search->survey" is the list
"(\%name2path, \%path2name)". In scalar context, the return value is
"\%name2path". Or you can just call this in void context.
Regardless of calling context, calling "survey" saves its results in
its "name2path" and "path2name" attributes.
E.g., when searching in
$HOME/perl5lib, the file
$HOME /perl5lib/MyModule.pm would get the POD name
MyModule, whereas
$HOME/perl5lib/Myclass/Subclass.pm would be
Myclass::Subclass. The name information can be used for POD
translators.
Only text files containing at least one valid POD command are found.
In verbose mode, a warning is printed if shadows are found (i.e., more than one
POD file with the same POD name is found, e.g.
CPAN.pm in different
directories). This usually indicates duplicate occurrences of modules in the
@INC search path, which is occasionally inadvertent (but
is often simply a case of a user's path dir having a more recent version than
the system's general path dirs in general.)
The options to this argument is a list of either directories that are searched
recursively, or files. (Usually you wouldn't specify files, but just dirs.) Or
you can just specify an empty-list, as in $name2path; with the "inc"
option on, as it is by default.
The POD names of files are the plain basenames with any Perl-like extension
(.pm, .pl, .pod) stripped, and path separators replaced by "::"'s.
Calling Pod::Simple::Search->search(...) is short for
Pod::Simple::Search->new->search(...). That is, a throwaway object with
default attribute values is used.
"$search->simplify_name( $str )"¶
The method
simplify_name is equivalent to
basename, but also
strips Perl-like extensions (.pm, .pl, .pod) and extensions like
.bat,
.cmd on Win32 and OS/2, or
.com on VMS, respectively.
"$search->find( $pod )"¶
"$search->find( $pod, @search_dirs )"¶
Returns the location of a Pod file, given a Pod/module/script name (like
"Foo::Bar" or "perlvar" or "perldoc"), and an
idea of what files/directories to look in. It searches according to the
various options set by the accessors above. (For example, if the
"inc" attribute is on, as it is by default, then the perl @INC
directories are implicitly added to the list of directories (if any) that you
specify.)
This returns the full path of the first occurrence to the file. Package names
(eg 'A::B') are automatically converted to directory names in the selected
directory. Additionally, '.pm', '.pl' and '.pod' are automatically appended to
the search as required. (So, for example, under Unix, "A::B" is
converted to "somedir/A/B.pm", "somedir/A/B.pod", or
"somedir/A/B.pl", as appropriate.)
If no such Pod file is found, this method returns undef.
If any of the given search directories contains a
pod/ subdirectory, then
it is searched. (That's how we manage to find
perlfunc, for example,
which is usually in
pod/perlfunc in most Perl dists.)
The "verbose" and "inc" attributes influence the behavior of
this search; notably, "inc", if true, adds @INC
and also
$Config::Config{'scriptdir'} to the list of directories
to search.
It is common to simply say "$filename = Pod::Simple::Search-> new
->find("perlvar")" so that just the @INC (well, and
scriptdir) directories are searched. (This happens because the "inc"
attribute is true by default.)
Calling Pod::Simple::Search->find(...) is short for
Pod::Simple::Search->new->find(...). That is, a throwaway object with
default attribute values is used.
"$self->contains_pod( $file )"¶
Returns true if the supplied filename (not POD module) contains some Pod
documentation. =head1 SUPPORT
Questions or discussion about POD and Pod::Simple should be sent to the
pod-people@perl.org mail list. Send an empty email to
pod-people-subscribe@perl.org to subscribe.
This module is managed in an open GitHub repository,
https://github.com/theory/pod-simple/
<
https://github.com/theory/pod-simple/>. Feel free to fork and
contribute, or to clone
git://github.com/theory/pod-simple.git
<
git://github.com/theory/pod-simple.git> and send patches!
Patches against Pod::Simple are welcome. Please send bug reports to
<bug-pod-simple@rt.cpan.org>.
COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMERS¶
Copyright (c) 2002 Sean M. Burke.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as Perl itself.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any
warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for
a particular purpose.
AUTHOR¶
Pod::Simple was created by Sean M. Burke <sburke@cpan.org> with code
borrowed from Marek Rouchal's Pod::Find, which in turn heavily borrowed code
from Nick Ing-Simmons' "PodToHtml".
But don't bother him, he's retired.
Pod::Simple is maintained by:
- •
- Allison Randal "allison@perl.org"
- •
- Hans Dieter Pearcey "hdp@cpan.org"
- •
- David E. Wheeler "dwheeler@cpan.org"