Manual: pod2usage

POD2USAGE(1)			      Perl Programmers Reference Guide				POD2USAGE(1)

NAME
       pod2usage - print usage messages from embedded pod docs in files

SYNOPSIS
       pod2usage   [-help]  [-man]  [-exit exitval]  [-output outfile]	[-verbose level] [-pathlist dirlist]
		   [-formatter module] [-utf8] file

OPTIONS AND ARGUMENTS
       -help   Print a brief help message and exit.

       -man    Print this command's manual page and exit.

       -exit exitval
	       The exit status value to return.

       -output outfile
	       The output file to print to. If the special names "-" or ">&1" or ">&STDOUT"  are  used	then
	       standard output is used. If ">&2" or ">&STDERR" is used then standard error is used.

       -verbose level
	       The desired level of verbosity to use:

		   1 : print SYNOPSIS only
		   2 : print SYNOPSIS sections and any OPTIONS/ARGUMENTS sections
		   3 : print the entire manpage (similar to running pod2text)

       -pathlist dirlist
	       Specifies one or more directories to search for the input file if it was not supplied with an
	       absolute	 path.	Each  directory	 path in the given list should be separated by a ':' on Unix
	       (';' on MSWin32 and DOS).

       -formatter module
	       Which  text  formatter  to  use.	 Default  is  Pod::Text,  or  for  very	 old  Perl  versions
	       Pod::PlainText. An alternative would be e.g.  Pod::Text::Termcap.

       -utf8   This option assumes that the formatter (see above) understands the option "utf8". It turns on
	       generation of utf8 output.

       file    The  pathname of a file containing pod documentation to be output in usage message format. If
	       omitted, standard input is read - but the output is then	 formatted  with  Pod::Text  only  -
	       unless a specific formatter has been specified with -formatter.

DESCRIPTION
       pod2usage  will	read  the  given  input	 file  looking	for  pod  documentation	 and  will print the
       corresponding usage message.  If no input file is specified then standard input is read.

       pod2usage invokes the pod2usage() function in the Pod::Usage  module.  Please  see  "pod2usage()"  in
       Pod::Usage.

SEE ALSO
       Pod::Usage, pod2text, Pod::Text, Pod::Text::Termcap, perldoc

AUTHOR
       Please report bugs using .

       Brad Appleton 

       Based on code for pod2text(1) written by Tom Christiansen 

perl v5.40.1					 2026-09-08					POD2USAGE(1)