paf - Man Page

Pod Abstract Filter. Transform Pod documents from the command line.

Synopsis

 sh$>
  paf summary /usr/bin/paf
  paf add_podcmds SomeModule.pm
  paf sort -heading=METHODS Pod/Abstract/Node.pm # METHODS is default
  paf sort summary Pod/Abstract/Node.pm
  
  # See Pod::Abstract::Filter::overlay
  paf overlay sort cut clear_podcmds SomeClass.pm
  
  # -p will emit pod source, instead of spawning perldoc.
  paf -p sort Pod::Abstract::Node
  paf -p find hoist Pod::Abstract::Node

Description

Paf is a small but powerful, modular Pod filter and transformation tool. It allows full round-trip transformation of Pod documents using the Pod::Abstract library, with multiple filter chains without having to serialise/re-parse the document at each step.

Paf comes with a small set of useful filters, but can be extended by simply writing new classes in the Pod::Abstract::Filter namespace.

Filters

add_podcmds

Add explicit =pod commands at the end of each cut section, so that all pod sections are started with an =pod command.

clear_podcmds

Remove all =pod commands that are not ending cut blocks. This will clean up documents that have been reduced using the cut filter too.

cut

Remove all cut nodes, so that only the pod remains.

overlay

 paf overlay Source.pm

For overlay to work, there must be a begin :overlay/end :overlay section in the Source file, with =overlay SECTION Module definitions inside. The net effect is that any missing subheadings in SECTION are added from the same section in the specified Modules.

Note that this will overlay the whole subheading, INCLUDING CUT NODES, so it can add code to the source document. Use cut if you don't want this.

Each overlaid section will include a =for overlay from marker, so that it can be replaced by a subsequent overlay from the same file/module. These sections will be replaced in-place, so ordering of sections once first overlaid will be preserved.

unoverlay

 paf unoverlay Source.pm

Strips all sections marked as overlaid and matching the overlay spec from the source.

sort

 paf sort [-heading=METHODS] Source.pm

Sort all of the subheadings in the named heading (METHODS if not provided).

This will move cut nodes around with their headings, so your code will mutate. Use cut if you only want pod in the output.

Alternatively, you can also cause sorting of headings to occur by including =for sorting at the start of your section (before the first subheading).

summary

Provide an abbreviated summary of the document. If there is a verbatim node in the body of a heading containing the heading name, it will be considered an example and expanded as part of the summary.

find

 paf find [-f=]name Source.pm

Find specific sub-sections or list items mentioning name. Used to restrict a larger document down to a smaller set that you're interested in. If no -f is specified, then the word following find will be the search term.

uncut

 paf uncut Source.pm

Convert cut nodes in the source into verbatim text. Not the inverse of cut!

number_sections

 paf number_sections Source.pm

Applies simple multipart (3.1.2) section numbering to head1 through head4 headings.

Note that number_sections will currently stuff up some of the cleverness in things like summary, as the section names won't match function names any more.

Info

2024-07-19 perl v5.40.0 User Contributed Perl Documentation