{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "perlpodstyle", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/perlpodstyle/1/json", "generated": "2026-10-07T19:34:22Z", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "perlpodstyle - Perl POD style guide\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "These are general guidelines for how to write POD documentation for Perl scripts and modules,\nbased on general guidelines for writing good UNIX man pages. All of these guidelines are, of\ncourse, optional, but following them will make your documentation more consistent with other\ndocumentation on the system.\n\nThe name of the program being documented is conventionally written in bold (using B<>)\nwherever it occurs, as are all program options. Arguments should be written in italics\n(I<>). Function names are traditionally written in italics; if you write a function as\nfunction(), Pod::Man will take care of this for you. Literal code or commands should be in\nC<>. References to other man pages should be in the form manpage(section) or\n\"L\", and Pod::Man will automatically format those appropriately. The\nsecond form, with L<>, is used to request that a POD formatter make a link to the man page if\npossible. As an exception, one normally omits the section when referring to module\ndocumentation since it's not clear what section module documentation will be in; use\n\"L\" for module references instead.\n\nReferences to other programs or functions are normally in the form of man page references so\nthat cross-referencing tools can provide the user with links and the like. It's possible to\noverdo this, though, so be careful not to clutter your documentation with too much markup.\nReferences to other programs that are not given as man page references should be enclosed in\nB<>.\n\nThe major headers should be set out using a \"=head1\" directive, and are historically written\nin the rather startling ALL UPPER CASE format; this is not mandatory, but it's strongly\nrecommended so that sections have consistent naming across different software packages.\nMinor headers may be included using \"=head2\", and are typically in mixed case.\n\nThe standard sections of a manual page are:\n\nNAME\nMandatory section; should be a comma-separated list of programs or functions documented\nby this POD page, such as:\n\nfoo, bar - programs to do something\n\nManual page indexers are often extremely picky about the format of this section, so don't\nput anything in it except this line. Every program or function documented by this POD\npage should be listed, separated by a comma and a space. For a Perl module, just give\nthe module name. A single dash, and only a single dash, should separate the list of\nprograms or functions from the description. Do not use any markup such as C<> or B<>\nanywhere in this line. Functions should not be qualified with \"()\" or the like. The\ndescription should ideally fit on a single line, even if a man program replaces the dash\nwith a few tabs.\n\nSYNOPSIS\nA short usage summary for programs and functions. This section is mandatory for section\n3 pages. For Perl module documentation, it's usually convenient to have the contents of\nthis section be a verbatim block showing some (brief) examples of typical ways the module\nis used.\n\nDESCRIPTION\nExtended description and discussion of the program or functions, or the body of the\ndocumentation for man pages that document something else. If particularly long, it's a\ngood idea to break this up into subsections \"=head2\" directives like:\n\n=head2 Normal Usage\n\n=head2 Advanced Features\n\n=head2 Writing Configuration Files\n\nor whatever is appropriate for your documentation.\n\nFor a module, this is generally where the documentation of the interfaces provided by the\nmodule goes, usually in the form of a list with an \"=item\" for each interface. Depending\non how many interfaces there are, you may want to put that documentation in separate\nMETHODS, FUNCTIONS, CLASS METHODS, or INSTANCE METHODS sections instead and save the\nDESCRIPTION section for an overview.\n\nOPTIONS\nDetailed description of each of the command-line options taken by the program. This\nshould be separate from the description for the use of parsers like Pod::Usage. This is\nnormally presented as a list, with each option as a separate \"=item\". The specific\noption string should be enclosed in B<>. Any values that the option takes should be\nenclosed in I<>. For example, the section for the option --section=manext would be\nintroduced with:\n\n=item B<--section>=I\n\nSynonymous options (like both the short and long forms) are separated by a comma and a\nspace on the same \"=item\" line, or optionally listed as their own item with a reference\nto the canonical name. For example, since --section can also be written as -s, the above\nwould be:\n\n=item B<-s> I, B<--section>=I\n\nWriting the short option first is recommended because it's easier to read. The long\noption is long enough to draw the eye to it anyway and the short option can otherwise get\nlost in visual noise.\n\nRETURN VALUE\nWhat the program or function returns, if successful. This section can be omitted for\nprograms whose precise exit codes aren't important, provided they return 0 on success and\nnon-zero on failure as is standard. It should always be present for functions. For\nmodules, it may be useful to summarize return values from the module interface here, or\nit may be more useful to discuss return values separately in the documentation of each\nfunction or method the module provides.\n\nERRORS\nExceptions, error return codes, exit statuses, and errno settings. Typically used for\nfunction or module documentation; program documentation uses DIAGNOSTICS instead. The\ngeneral rule of thumb is that errors printed to \"STDOUT\" or \"STDERR\" and intended for the\nend user are documented in DIAGNOSTICS while errors passed internal to the calling\nprogram and intended for other programmers are documented in ERRORS. When documenting a\nfunction that sets errno, a full list of the possible errno values should be given here.\n\nDIAGNOSTICS\nAll possible messages the program can print out and what they mean. You may wish to\nfollow the same documentation style as the Perl documentation; see perldiag(1) for more\ndetails (and look at the POD source as well).\n\nIf applicable, please include details on what the user should do to correct the error;\ndocumenting an error as indicating \"the input buffer is too small\" without telling the\nuser how to increase the size of the input buffer (or at least telling them that it isn't\npossible) aren't very useful.\n\nEXAMPLES\nGive some example uses of the program or function. Don't skimp; users often find this\nthe most useful part of the documentation. The examples are generally given as verbatim\nparagraphs.\n\nDon't just present an example without explaining what it does. Adding a short paragraph\nsaying what the example will do can increase the value of the example immensely.\n\nENVIRONMENT\nEnvironment variables that the program cares about, normally presented as a list using\n\"=over\", \"=item\", and \"=back\". For example:\n\n=over 6\n\n=item HOME\n\nUsed to determine the user's home directory. F<.foorc> in this\ndirectory is read for configuration details, if it exists.\n\n=back\n\nSince environment variables are normally in all uppercase, no additional special\nformatting is generally needed; they're glaring enough as it is.\n\nFILES\nAll files used by the program or function, normally presented as a list, and what it uses\nthem for. File names should be enclosed in F<>. It's particularly important to document\nfiles that will be potentially modified.\n\nCAVEATS\nThings to take special care with, sometimes called WARNINGS.\n\nBUGS\nThings that are broken or just don't work quite right.\n\nRESTRICTIONS\nBugs you don't plan to fix. :-)\n\nNOTES\nMiscellaneous commentary.\n\nAUTHOR\nWho wrote it (use AUTHORS for multiple people). It's a good idea to include your current\ne-mail address (or some e-mail address to which bug reports should be sent) or some other\ncontact information so that users have a way of contacting you. Remember that program\ndocumentation tends to roam the wild for far longer than you expect and pick a contact\nmethod that's likely to last.\n\nHISTORY\nPrograms derived from other sources sometimes have this. Some people keep a modification\nlog here, but that usually gets long and is normally better maintained in a separate\nfile.\n\nCOPYRIGHT AND LICENSE\nFor copyright\n\nCopyright YEAR(s) YOUR NAME(s)\n\n(No, (C) is not needed. No, \"all rights reserved\" is not needed.)\n\nFor licensing the easiest way is to use the same licensing as Perl itself:\n\nThis library is free software; you may redistribute it and/or\nmodify it under the same terms as Perl itself.\n\nThis makes it easy for people to use your module with Perl. Note that this licensing\nexample is neither an endorsement or a requirement, you are of course free to choose any\nlicensing.\n\nSEE ALSO\nOther man pages to check out, like man(1), man(7), makewhatis(8), or catman(8). Normally\na simple list of man pages separated by commas, or a paragraph giving the name of a\nreference work. Man page references, if they use the standard name(section) form, don't\nhave to be enclosed in L<> (although it's recommended), but other things in this section\nprobably should be when appropriate.\n\nIf the package has a mailing list, include a URL or subscription instructions here.\n\nIf the package has a web site, include a URL here.\n\nDocumentation of object-oriented libraries or modules may want to use CONSTRUCTORS and\nMETHODS sections, or CLASS METHODS and INSTANCE METHODS sections, for detailed documentation\nof the parts of the library and save the DESCRIPTION section for an overview. Large modules\nwith a function interface may want to use FUNCTIONS for similar reasons. Some people use\nOVERVIEW to summarize the description if it's quite long.\n\nSection ordering varies, although NAME must always be the first section (you'll break some\nman page systems otherwise), and NAME, SYNOPSIS, DESCRIPTION, and OPTIONS generally always\noccur first and in that order if present. In general, SEE ALSO, AUTHOR, and similar material\nshould be left for last. Some systems also move WARNINGS and NOTES to last. The order given\nabove should be reasonable for most purposes.\n\nSome systems use CONFORMING TO to note conformance to relevant standards and MT-LEVEL to note\nsafeness for use in threaded programs or signal handlers. These headings are primarily\nuseful when documenting parts of a C library.\n\nFinally, as a general note, try not to use an excessive amount of markup. As documented here\nand in Pod::Man, you can safely leave Perl variables, function names, man page references,\nand the like unadorned by markup and the POD translators will figure it out for you. This\nmakes it much easier to later edit the documentation. Note that many existing translators\nwill do the wrong thing with e-mail addresses when wrapped in L<>, so don't do that.\n", "subsections": [] }, "AUTHOR": { "content": "Russ Allbery , with large portions of this documentation taken from the\ndocumentation of the original pod2man implementation by Larry Wall and Tom Christiansen.\n", "subsections": [] }, "COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE": { "content": "Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2018 Russ Allbery \n\nCopying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any\nmedium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved. This\nfile is offered as-is, without any warranty.\n\nSPDX-License-Identifier: FSFAP\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "For additional information that may be more accurate for your specific system, see either\nman(5) or man(7) depending on your system manual section numbering conventions.\n\nThis documentation is maintained as part of the podlators distribution. The current version\nis always available from its web site at .\n\nperl v5.38.2 2026-08-18 PERLPODSTYLE(1)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "perlpodstyle - Perl POD style guide", "flags": [], "examples": [], "see_also": [ { "name": "man", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/man/5/json" }, { "name": "man", "section": "7", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/man/7/json" } ] }