man > perlpodstyle(1)

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

NAME
       perlpodstyle - Perl POD style guide

DESCRIPTION
       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
       function(), 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  --section=manext  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 --section can also be written as -s, 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(1) 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.

       COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
           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 man(1), man(7), makewhatis(8), or catman(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.

AUTHOR
       Russ  Allbery  <rra AT cpan.org>,  with  large  portions  of  this  documentation taken from the
       documentation of the original pod2man implementation by Larry Wall and Tom Christiansen.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
       Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2018 Russ Allbery <rra AT 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

SEE ALSO
       For additional information that may be more accurate for your  specific  system,  see  either
       man(5) or man(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 v5.38.2                                 2026-08-18                              PERLPODSTYLE(1)