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POD2TEXT(1)


NAME

  pod2text - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text


SYNOPSIS

  pod2text [-aclost] [-i indent] [-q quotes] [-w width] [input [output]]

  pod2text -h


DESCRIPTION

  pod2text is a front-end for Pod::Text and its subclasses.  It uses them to
  generate formatted ASCII text from POD source.  It can optionally use
  either termcap sequences or ANSI color escape sequences to format the text.

  input is the file to read for POD source (the POD can be embedded in code).
  If input isn't given, it defaults to STDIN.  output, if given, is the file
  to which to write the formatted output.  If output isn't given, the
  formatted output is written to STDOUT.


OPTIONS

  -a, --alt
      Use an alternate output format that, among other things, uses a
      different heading style and marks "=item" entries with a colon in the
      left margin.

  -c, --color
      Format the output with ANSI color escape sequences.  Using this option
      requires that Term::ANSIColor be installed on your system.

  -i indent, --indent=indent
      Set the number of spaces to indent regular text, and the default
      indentation for "=over" blocks.  Defaults to 4 spaces if this option
      isn't given.

  -h, --help
      Print out usage information and exit.

  -l, --loose
      Print a blank line after a "=head1" heading.  Normally, no blank line
      is printed after "=head1", although one is still printed after
      "=head2", because this is the expected formatting for manual pages; if
      you're formatting arbitrary text documents, using this option is
      recommended.

  -o, --overstrike
      Format the output with overstruck printing.  Bold text is rendered as
      character, backspace, character.	Italics and file names are rendered
      as underscore, backspace, character.  Many pagers, such as less, know
      how to convert this to bold or underlined text.

  -q quotes, --quotes=quotes
      Sets the quote marks used to surround C<> text to quotes.	 If quotes is
      a single character, it is used as both the left and right quote; if
      quotes is two characters, the first character is used as the left quote
      and the second as the right quoted; and if quotes is four characters,
      the first two are used as the left quote and the second two as the
      right quote.

      quotes may also be set to the special value "none", in which case no
      quote marks are added around C<> text.

  -s, --sentence
      Assume each sentence ends with two spaces and try to preserve that
      spacing.	Without this option, all consecutive whitespace in non-
      verbatim paragraphs is compressed into a single space.

  -t, --termcap
      Try to determine the width of the screen and the bold and underline
      sequences for the terminal from termcap, and use that information in
      formatting the output.  Output will be wrapped at two columns less than
      the width of your terminal device.  Using this option requires that
      your system have a termcap file somewhere where Term::Cap can find it
      and requires that your system support termios.  With this option, the
      output of pod2text will contain terminal control sequences for your
      current terminal type.

  -w, --width=width, -width
      The column at which to wrap text on the right-hand side.	Defaults to
      76, unless -t is given, in which case it's two columns less than the
      width of your terminal device.


DIAGNOSTICS

  If pod2text fails with errors, see the Pod::Text manpage and the
  Pod::Parser manpage for information about what those errors might mean.
  Internally, it can also produce the following diagnostics:

  -c (--color) requires Term::ANSIColor be installed
      (F) -c or --color were given, but Term::ANSIColor could not be loaded.

  Unknown option: %s
      (F) An unknown command line option was given.

  In addition, other Getopt::Long error messages may result from invalid
  command-line options.


ENVIRONMENT

  COLUMNS
      If -t is given, pod2text will take the current width of your screen
      from this environment variable, if available.  It overrides terminal
      width information in TERMCAP.

  TERMCAP
      If -t is given, pod2text will use the contents of this environment
      variable if available to determine the correct formatting sequences for
      your current terminal device.


SEE ALSO

  Pod::Text, Pod::Text::Color, Pod::Text::Termcap, Pod::Parser


AUTHOR

  Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>.

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