NAME¶

Pod::Readme - Convert POD to README file

SYNOPSIS¶

  use Pod::Readme;
  my $parser = Pod::Readme->new();
  # Read POD from STDIN and write to STDOUT
  $parser->parse_from_filehandle;
  # Read POD from Module.pm and write to README
  $parser->parse_from_file('Module.pm', 'README');

DESCRIPTION¶

This module is a subclass of Pod::PlainText which provides additional POD markup for generating README files. Why should one bother with this? One can simply use

  pod2text Module.pm > README

A problem with doing that is that the default pod2text converter will add text to links, so that "L<Module>" is translated to "the Module manpage". Another problem is that the README includes the entirety of the module documentation! Most people browsing the README file do not need all of this information. Likewise, including installation and requirement information in the module documentation is not necessary either, since the module is already installed. This module allows authors to mark portions of the POD to be included only in, or to be excluded from the README file. It also allows you to include portions of another file (such as a separate ChangeLog).

Markup¶

Special POD markup options are described below:

begin/end

  =begin readme
  =head1 README ONLY
  This section will only show up in the README file.
  =end readme
    

 

Delineates a POD section that is only available in README file. If you prefer to include plain text instead, add the "text" modifier:

 

  =begin readme text
  README ONLY (PLAINTEXT)
      This section will only show up in the README file.
  =end readme
    

 

Note that placing a colon before the section to indicate that it is POD (e.g. "begin :readme") is not supported in this version.

stop/continue

  =for readme stop
    

 

All POD that follows will not be included in the README, until a "continue" command occurs:

 

  =for readme continue
    

include

  =for readme include file=filename type=type start=Regexp stop=Regexp
  =for readme include file=Changes start=^0.09 stop=^0.081 type=text
    

 

Includes a plaintext file named filename, starting with the line that contains the start "Regexp" and ending at the line that begins with the stop "Regexp". (The start and stop Regexps are optional: one or both may be omitted.)

 

Type may be "text" or "pod". If omitted, "pod" will be assumed.

 

Quotes may be used when the filename or marks contains spaces:

 

  =for readme include file="another file.pod"
    

One can also using maintain multiple file types (such as including TODO, or COPYING) by using a modified constructor:

  $parser = Pod::Readme->new( readme_type => "copying" );

In the above "Markup" commands replace "readme" with the tag specified instead (such as "copying"):

  =begin copying

As of version 0.03 you can specify multiple sections by separating them with a comma:

  =begin copying,readme

There is also no standard list of type names. Some names might be recognized by other POD processors (such as "testing" or "html"). Pod::Readme will reject the following "known" type names when they are specified in the constructor:

    testing html xhtml xml docbook rtf man nroff dsr rno latex tex code

You can also use a "debug" mode to diagnose any problems, such as mistyped format names:

  $parser = Pod::Readme->new( debug => 1 );

Warnings will be issued for any ignored formatting commands.

Example¶

For an example, see the Readme.pm file in this distribution.

SEE ALSO¶

See perlpod, perlpodspec and podlators.

AUTHOR¶

Originally by Robert Rothenberg <rrwo at cpan.org> Now maintained by David Precious <davidp@preshweb.co.uk>

Suggestions, Bug Reporting and Contributing¶

This module is developed on GitHub at: http://github.com/bigpresh/Pod-Readme

LICENSE¶

Copyright (c) 2005,2006 Robert Rothenberg. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Some portions are based on Pod::PlainText 2.02.