Pod::Checker
Pod::Checker(3) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Pod::Checker(3)
NAME
Pod::Checker, podchecker() - check pod documents for syntax errors
SYNOPSIS
use Pod::Checker;
$syntax_okay = podchecker($filepath, $outputpath, %options);
my $checker = new Pod::Checker %options;
$checker->parse_from_file($filepath, \*STDERR);
OPTIONS/ARGUMENTS
$filepath is the input POD to read and $outputpath is where to write
POD syntax error messages. Either argument may be a scalar indicating a
file-path, or else a reference to an open filehandle. If unspecified,
the input-file it defaults to "\*STDIN", and the output-file defaults
to "\*STDERR".
podchecker()
This function can take a hash of options:
-warnings => val
Turn warnings on/off. val is usually 1 for on, but higher values
trigger additional warnings. See "Warnings".
DESCRIPTION
podchecker will perform syntax checking of Perl5 POD format documenta-
tion.
Curious/ambitious users are welcome to propose additional features they
wish to see in Pod::Checker and podchecker and verify that the checks
are consistent with perlpod.
The following checks are currently preformed:
o Unknown '=xxxx' commands, unknown 'X<...>' interior-sequences, and
unterminated interior sequences.
o Check for proper balancing of "=begin" and "=end". The contents of
such a block are generally ignored, i.e. no syntax checks are per-
formed.
o Check for proper nesting and balancing of "=over", "=item" and
"=back".
o Check for same nested interior-sequences (e.g. "L<...L<...>...>").
o Check for malformed or nonexisting entities "E<...>".
o Check for correct syntax of hyperlinks "L<...>". See perlpod for
details.
o Check for unresolved document-internal links. This check may also
reveal misspelled links that seem to be internal links but should
be links to something else.
DIAGNOSTICS
Errors
* empty =headn
A heading ("=head1" or "=head2") without any text? That ain't no
heading!
* =over on line N without closing =back
The "=over" command does not have a corresponding "=back" before
the next heading ("=head1" or "=head2") or the end of the file.
* =item without previous =over
* =back without previous =over
An "=item" or "=back" command has been found outside a
"=over"/"=back" block.
* No argument for =begin
A "=begin" command was found that is not followed by the formatter
specification.
* =end without =begin
A standalone "=end" command was found.
* Nested =begin's
There were at least two consecutive "=begin" commands without the
corresponding "=end". Only one "=begin" may be active at a time.
* =for without formatter specification
There is no specification of the formatter after the "=for" com-
mand.
* unresolved internal link NAME
The given link to NAME does not have a matching node in the current
POD. This also happend when a single word node name is not enclosed
in "".
* Unknown command "CMD"
An invalid POD command has been found. Valid are "=head1",
"=head2", "=head3", "=head4", "=over", "=item", "=back", "=begin",
"=end", "=for", "=pod", "=cut"
* Unknown interior-sequence "SEQ"
An invalid markup command has been encountered. Valid are: "B<>",
"C<>", "E<>", "F<>", "I<>", "L<>", "S<>", "X<>", "Z<>"
* nested commands CMD<...CMD<...>...>
Two nested identical markup commands have been found. Generally
this does not make sense.
* garbled entity STRING
The STRING found cannot be interpreted as a character entity.
* Entity number out of range
An entity specified by number (dec, hex, oct) is out of range
(1-255).
* malformed link L<>
The link found cannot be parsed because it does not conform to the
syntax described in perlpod.
* nonempty Z<>
The "Z<>" sequence is supposed to be empty.
* empty X<>
The index entry specified contains nothing but whitespace.
* Spurious text after =pod / =cut
The commands "=pod" and "=cut" do not take any arguments.
* Spurious character(s) after =back
The "=back" command does not take any arguments.
Warnings
These may not necessarily cause trouble, but indicate mediocre style.
* multiple occurrence of link target name
The POD file has some "=item" and/or "=head" commands that have the
same text. Potential hyperlinks to such a text cannot be unique
then.
* line containing nothing but whitespace in paragraph
There is some whitespace on a seemingly empty line. POD is very
sensitive to such things, so this is flagged. vi users switch on
the list option to avoid this problem.
* previous =item has no contents
There is a list "=item" right above the flagged line that has no
text contents. You probably want to delete empty items.
* preceding non-item paragraph(s)
A list introduced by "=over" starts with a text or verbatim para-
graph, but continues with "=item"s. Move the non-item paragraph out
of the "=over"/"=back" block.
* =item type mismatch (one vs. two)
A list started with e.g. a bulletted "=item" and continued with a
numbered one. This is obviously inconsistent. For most translators
the type of the first "=item" determines the type of the list.
* N unescaped "<>" in paragraph
Angle brackets not written as "<lt>" and "<gt>" can potentially
cause errors as they could be misinterpreted as markup commands.
This is only printed when the -warnings level is greater than 1.
* Unknown entity
A character entity was found that does not belong to the standard
ISO set or the POD specials "verbar" and "sol".
* No items in =over
The list opened with "=over" does not contain any items.
* No argument for =item
"=item" without any parameters is deprecated. It should either be
followed by "*" to indicate an unordered list, by a number (option-
ally followed by a dot) to indicate an ordered (numbered) list or
simple text for a definition list.
* empty section in previous paragraph
The previous section (introduced by a "=head" command) does not
contain any text. This usually indicates that something is missing.
Note: A "=head1" followed immediately by "=head2" does not trigger
this warning.
* Verbatim paragraph in NAME section
The NAME section ("=head1 NAME") should consist of a single para-
graph with the script/module name, followed by a dash `-' and a
very short description of what the thing is good for.
* =headn without preceding higher level
For example if there is a "=head2" in the POD file prior to a
"=head1".
Hyperlinks
There are some warnings wrt. malformed hyperlinks.
* ignoring leading/trailing whitespace in link
There is whitespace at the beginning or the end of the contents of
L<...>.
* (section) in '$page' deprecated
There is a section detected in the page name of L<...>, e.g.
"L<passwd(2)>". POD hyperlinks may point to POD documents only.
Please write "C<passwd(2)>" instead. Some formatters are able to
expand this to appropriate code. For links to (builtin) functions,
please say "L<perlfunc/mkdir>", without ().
* alternative text/node '%s' contains non-escaped | or /
The characters "|" and "/" are special in the L<...> context.
Although the hyperlink parser does its best to determine which "/"
is text and which is a delimiter in case of doubt, one ought to
escape these literal characters like this:
/ E<sol>
| E<verbar>
RETURN VALUE
podchecker returns the number of POD syntax errors found or -1 if there
were no POD commands at all found in the file.
EXAMPLES
See "SYNOPSIS"
INTERFACE
While checking, this module collects document properties, e.g. the
nodes for hyperlinks ("=headX", "=item") and index entries ("X<>").
POD translators can use this feature to syntax-check and get the nodes
in a first pass before actually starting to convert. This is expensive
in terms of execution time, but allows for very robust conversions.
Since PodParser-1.24 the Pod::Checker module uses only the poderror
method to print errors and warnings. The summary output (e.g. "Pod
syntax OK") has been dropped from the module and has been included in
podchecker (the script). This allows users of Pod::Checker to control
completely the output behaviour. Users of podchecker (the script) get
the well-known behaviour.
"Pod::Checker->new( %options )"
Return a reference to a new Pod::Checker object that inherits from
Pod::Parser and is used for calling the required methods later. The
following options are recognized:
"-warnings => num"
Print warnings if "num" is true. The higher the value of "num",
the more warnings are printed. Currently there are only levels 1
and 2.
"-quiet => num"
If "num" is true, do not print any errors/warnings. This is use-
ful when Pod::Checker is used to munge POD code into plain text
from within POD formatters.
"$checker->poderror( @args )"
"$checker->poderror( {%opts}, @args )"
Internal method for printing errors and warnings. If no options are
given, simply prints "@_". The following options are recognized and
used to form the output:
-msg
A message to print prior to @args.
-line
The line number the error occurred in.
-file
The file (name) the error occurred in.
-severity
The error level, should be 'WARNING' or 'ERROR'.
"$checker->num_errors()"
Set (if argument specified) and retrieve the number of errors
found.
"$checker->num_warnings()"
Set (if argument specified) and retrieve the number of warnings
found.
"$checker->name()"
Set (if argument specified) and retrieve the canonical name of POD
as found in the "=head1 NAME" section.
"$checker->node()"
Add (if argument specified) and retrieve the nodes (as defined by
"=headX" and "=item") of the current POD. The nodes are returned in
the order of their occurrence. They consist of plain text, each
piece of whitespace is collapsed to a single blank.
"$checker->idx()"
Add (if argument specified) and retrieve the index entries (as
defined by "X<>") of the current POD. They consist of plain text,
each piece of whitespace is collapsed to a single blank.
"$checker->hyperlink()"
Add (if argument specified) and retrieve the hyperlinks (as defined
by "L<>") of the current POD. They consist of a 2-item array: line
number and "Pod::Hyperlink" object.
AUTHOR
Please report bugs using <http://rt.cpan.org>.
Brad Appleton <bradapp@enteract.com> (initial version), Marek Rouchal
<marekr@cpan.org>
Based on code for Pod::Text::pod2text() written by Tom Christiansen
<tchrist@mox.perl.com>
perl v5.8.6 2001-09-21 Pod::Checker(3)
