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.\" ========================================================================
.IX Title "Pod::Checker 3"
.TH Pod::Checker 3 "2001-09-21" "perl v5.8.8" "Perl Programmers Reference Guide"
Pod::Checker, podchecker() \- check pod documents for syntax errors
\& $syntax_okay = podchecker($filepath, $outputpath, %options);
\& my $checker = new Pod::Checker %options;
\& $checker->parse_from_file($filepath, \e*STDERR);
.IX Header "OPTIONS/ARGUMENTS"
\&\f(CW$filepath\fR is the input \s-1POD\s0 to read and \f(CW$outputpath\fR is
where to write \s-1POD\s0 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 \f(CW\*(C`\e*STDIN\*(C'\fR, and
the output-file defaults to \f(CW\*(C`\e*STDERR\*(C'\fR.
.IX Subsection "podchecker()"
This function can take a hash of options:
.IP "\fB\-warnings\fR => \fIval\fR" 4
.IX Item "-warnings => val"
Turn warnings on/off. \fIval\fR is usually 1 for on, but higher values
trigger additional warnings. See \*(L"Warnings\*(R".
\&\fBpodchecker\fR will perform syntax checking of Perl5 \s-1POD\s0 format documentation.
Curious/ambitious users are welcome to propose additional features they wish
to see in \fBPod::Checker\fR and \fBpodchecker\fR and verify that the checks are
The following checks are currently performed:
Unknown '=xxxx' commands, unknown 'X<...>' interior\-sequences,
and unterminated interior sequences.
Check for proper balancing of \f(CW\*(C`=begin\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`=end\*(C'\fR. The contents of such
a block are generally ignored, i.e. no syntax checks are performed.
Check for proper nesting and balancing of \f(CW\*(C`=over\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`=item\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`=back\*(C'\fR.
Check for same nested interior-sequences (e.g.
\&\f(CW\*(C`L<...L<...>...>\*(C'\fR).
Check for malformed or nonexisting entities \f(CW\*(C`E<...>\*(C'\fR.
Check for correct syntax of hyperlinks \f(CW\*(C`L<...>\*(C'\fR. See perlpod
Check for unresolved document-internal links. This check may also reveal
misspelled links that seem to be internal links but should be links
A heading (\f(CW\*(C`=head1\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`=head2\*(C'\fR) without any text? That ain't no
.IP "* =over on line \fIN\fR without closing =back" 4
.IX Item "=over on line N without closing =back"
The \f(CW\*(C`=over\*(C'\fR command does not have a corresponding \f(CW\*(C`=back\*(C'\fR before the
next heading (\f(CW\*(C`=head1\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`=head2\*(C'\fR) or the end of the file.
.IP "* =item without previous =over" 4
.IX Item "=item without previous =over"
.IP "* =back without previous =over" 4
.IX Item "=back without previous =over"
An \f(CW\*(C`=item\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`=back\*(C'\fR command has been found outside a
\&\f(CW\*(C`=over\*(C'\fR/\f(CW\*(C`=back\*(C'\fR block.
.IP "* No argument for =begin" 4
.IX Item "No argument for =begin"
A \f(CW\*(C`=begin\*(C'\fR command was found that is not followed by the formatter
.IP "* =end without =begin" 4
.IX Item "=end without =begin"
A standalone \f(CW\*(C`=end\*(C'\fR command was found.
.IP "* Nested =begin's" 4
.IX Item "Nested =begin's"
There were at least two consecutive \f(CW\*(C`=begin\*(C'\fR commands without
the corresponding \f(CW\*(C`=end\*(C'\fR. Only one \f(CW\*(C`=begin\*(C'\fR may be active at
.IP "* =for without formatter specification" 4
.IX Item "=for without formatter specification"
There is no specification of the formatter after the \f(CW\*(C`=for\*(C'\fR command.
.IP "* unresolved internal link \fI\s-1NAME\s0\fR" 4
.IX Item "unresolved internal link NAME"
The given link to \fI\s-1NAME\s0\fR does not have a matching node in the current
\&\s-1POD\s0. This also happend when a single word node name is not enclosed in
.ie n .IP "* Unknown command ""\fI\s-1CMD\s0\fR""" 4
.el .IP "* Unknown command ``\fI\s-1CMD\s0\fR''" 4
.IX Item "Unknown command ""CMD"""
An invalid \s-1POD\s0 command has been found. Valid are \f(CW\*(C`=head1\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`=head2\*(C'\fR,
\&\f(CW\*(C`=head3\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`=head4\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`=over\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`=item\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`=back\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`=begin\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`=end\*(C'\fR,
\&\f(CW\*(C`=for\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`=pod\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`=cut\*(C'\fR
.ie n .IP "* Unknown interior-sequence ""\fI\s-1SEQ\s0\fR""" 4
.el .IP "* Unknown interior-sequence ``\fI\s-1SEQ\s0\fR''" 4
.IX Item "Unknown interior-sequence ""SEQ"""
An invalid markup command has been encountered. Valid are:
\&\f(CW\*(C`B<>\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`C<>\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`E<>\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`F<>\*(C'\fR,
\&\f(CW\*(C`I<>\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`L<>\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`S<>\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`X<>\*(C'\fR,
.IP "* nested commands \fI\s-1CMD\s0\fR<...\fI\s-1CMD\s0\fR<...>...>" 4
.IX Item "nested commands CMD<...CMD<...>...>"
Two nested identical markup commands have been found. Generally this
.IP "* garbled entity \fI\s-1STRING\s0\fR" 4
.IX Item "garbled entity STRING"
The \fI\s-1STRING\s0\fR found cannot be interpreted as a character entity.
.IP "* Entity number out of range" 4
.IX Item "Entity number out of range"
An entity specified by number (dec, hex, oct) is out of range (1\-255).
.IP "* malformed link L<>" 4
.IX Item "malformed link L<>"
The link found cannot be parsed because it does not conform to the
syntax described in perlpod.
The \f(CW\*(C`Z<>\*(C'\fR sequence is supposed to be empty.
The index entry specified contains nothing but whitespace.
.IP "* Spurious text after =pod / =cut" 4
.IX Item "Spurious text after =pod / =cut"
The commands \f(CW\*(C`=pod\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`=cut\*(C'\fR do not take any arguments.
.IP "* Spurious character(s) after =back" 4
.IX Item "Spurious character(s) after =back"
The \f(CW\*(C`=back\*(C'\fR command does not take any arguments.
.IX Subsection "Warnings"
These may not necessarily cause trouble, but indicate mediocre style.
.IP "* multiple occurrence of link target \fIname\fR" 4
.IX Item "multiple occurrence of link target name"
The \s-1POD\s0 file has some \f(CW\*(C`=item\*(C'\fR and/or \f(CW\*(C`=head\*(C'\fR commands that have
the same text. Potential hyperlinks to such a text cannot be unique then.
This warning is printed only with warning level greater than one.
.IP "* line containing nothing but whitespace in paragraph" 4
.IX Item "line containing nothing but whitespace in paragraph"
There is some whitespace on a seemingly empty line. \s-1POD\s0 is very sensitive
to such things, so this is flagged. \fBvi\fR users switch on the \fBlist\fR
option to avoid this problem.
.IP "* previous =item has no contents" 4
.IX Item "previous =item has no contents"
There is a list \f(CW\*(C`=item\*(C'\fR right above the flagged line that has no
text contents. You probably want to delete empty items.
.IP "* preceding non-item paragraph(s)" 4
.IX Item "preceding non-item paragraph(s)"
A list introduced by \f(CW\*(C`=over\*(C'\fR starts with a text or verbatim paragraph,
but continues with \f(CW\*(C`=item\*(C'\fRs. Move the non-item paragraph out of the
\&\f(CW\*(C`=over\*(C'\fR/\f(CW\*(C`=back\*(C'\fR block.
.IP "* =item type mismatch (\fIone\fR vs. \fItwo\fR)" 4
.IX Item "=item type mismatch (one vs. two)"
A list started with e.g. a bulletted \f(CW\*(C`=item\*(C'\fR and continued with a
numbered one. This is obviously inconsistent. For most translators the
type of the \fIfirst\fR \f(CW\*(C`=item\*(C'\fR determines the type of the list.
.ie n .IP "* \fIN\fR unescaped ""<>"" in paragraph" 4
.el .IP "* \fIN\fR unescaped \f(CW<>\fR in paragraph" 4
.IX Item "N unescaped <> in paragraph"
Angle brackets not written as \f(CW\*(C`<lt>\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`<gt>\*(C'\fR
can potentially cause errors as they could be misinterpreted as
markup commands. This is only printed when the \-warnings level is
.IX Item "Unknown entity"
A character entity was found that does not belong to the standard
\&\s-1ISO\s0 set or the \s-1POD\s0 specials \f(CW\*(C`verbar\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`sol\*(C'\fR.
.IP "* No items in =over" 4
.IX Item "No items in =over"
The list opened with \f(CW\*(C`=over\*(C'\fR does not contain any items.
.IP "* No argument for =item" 4
.IX Item "No argument for =item"
\&\f(CW\*(C`=item\*(C'\fR without any parameters is deprecated. It should either be followed
by \f(CW\*(C`*\*(C'\fR to indicate an unordered list, by a number (optionally followed
by a dot) to indicate an ordered (numbered) list or simple text for a
.IP "* empty section in previous paragraph" 4
.IX Item "empty section in previous paragraph"
The previous section (introduced by a \f(CW\*(C`=head\*(C'\fR command) does not contain
any text. This usually indicates that something is missing. Note: A
\&\f(CW\*(C`=head1\*(C'\fR followed immediately by \f(CW\*(C`=head2\*(C'\fR does not trigger this warning.
.IP "* Verbatim paragraph in \s-1NAME\s0 section" 4
.IX Item "Verbatim paragraph in NAME section"
The \s-1NAME\s0 section (\f(CW\*(C`=head1 NAME\*(C'\fR) should consist of a single paragraph
with the script/module name, followed by a dash `\-' and a very short
description of what the thing is good for.
.IP "* =head\fIn\fR without preceding higher level" 4
.IX Item "=headn without preceding higher level"
For example if there is a \f(CW\*(C`=head2\*(C'\fR in the \s-1POD\s0 file prior to a
\&\f(CW\*(C`=head1\*(C'\fR.
.IX Subsection "Hyperlinks"
There are some warnings wrt. malformed hyperlinks.
.IP "* ignoring leading/trailing whitespace in link" 4
.IX Item "ignoring leading/trailing whitespace in link"
There is whitespace at the beginning or the end of the contents of
.IP "* (section) in '$page' deprecated" 4
.IX Item "(section) in '$page' deprecated"
There is a section detected in the page name of L<...>, e.g.
\&\f(CW\*(C`L<passwd(2)>\*(C'\fR. \s-1POD\s0 hyperlinks may point to \s-1POD\s0 documents only.
Please write \f(CW\*(C`C<passwd(2)>\*(C'\fR instead. Some formatters are able
to expand this to appropriate code. For links to (builtin) functions,
please say \f(CW\*(C`L<perlfunc/mkdir>\*(C'\fR, without ().
.IP "* alternative text/node '%s' contains non-escaped | or /" 4
.IX Item "alternative text/node '%s' contains non-escaped | or /"
The characters \f(CW\*(C`|\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`/\*(C'\fR are special in the L<...> context.
Although the hyperlink parser does its best to determine which \*(L"/\*(R" is
text and which is a delimiter in case of doubt, one ought to escape
these literal characters like this:
.IX Header "RETURN VALUE"
\&\fBpodchecker\fR returns the number of \s-1POD\s0 syntax errors found or \-1 if
there were no \s-1POD\s0 commands at all found in the file.
See \*(L"\s-1SYNOPSIS\s0\*(R"
While checking, this module collects document properties, e.g. the nodes
for hyperlinks (\f(CW\*(C`=headX\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`=item\*(C'\fR) and index entries (\f(CW\*(C`X<>\*(C'\fR).
\&\s-1POD\s0 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 \fBPod::Checker\fR module uses only the \fBpoderror\fR
method to print errors and warnings. The summary output (e.g.
\&\*(L"Pod syntax \s-1OK\s0\*(R") has been dropped from the module and has been included in
\&\fBpodchecker\fR (the script). This allows users of \fBPod::Checker\fR to
control completely the output behaviour. Users of \fBpodchecker\fR (the script)
get the well-known behaviour.
.ie n .IP """Pod::Checker\->new( %options )""" 4
.el .IP "\f(CWPod::Checker\->new( %options )\fR" 4
.IX Item "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:
\&\f(CW\*(C`\-warnings => num\*(C'\fR
Print warnings if \f(CW\*(C`num\*(C'\fR is true. The higher the value of \f(CW\*(C`num\*(C'\fR,
the more warnings are printed. Currently there are only levels 1 and 2.
\&\f(CW\*(C`\-quiet => num\*(C'\fR
If \f(CW\*(C`num\*(C'\fR is true, do not print any errors/warnings. This is useful
when Pod::Checker is used to munge \s-1POD\s0 code into plain text from within
.ie n .IP """$checker\->poderror( @args )""" 4
.el .IP "\f(CW$checker\->poderror( @args )\fR" 4
.IX Item "$checker->poderror( @args )"
.ie n .IP """$checker\->poderror( {%opts}, @args )""" 4
.el .IP "\f(CW$checker\->poderror( {%opts}, @args )\fR" 4
.IX Item "$checker->poderror( {%opts}, @args )"
Internal method for printing errors and warnings. If no options are
given, simply prints \*(L"@_\*(R". The following options are recognized and used
A message to print prior to \f(CW@args\fR.
The line number the error occurred in.
The file (name) the error occurred in.
The error level, should be '\s-1WARNING\s0' or '\s-1ERROR\s0'.
.ie n .IP """$checker\->num_errors()""" 4
.el .IP "\f(CW$checker\->num_errors()\fR" 4
.IX Item "$checker->num_errors()"
Set (if argument specified) and retrieve the number of errors found.
.ie n .IP """$checker\->num_warnings()""" 4
.el .IP "\f(CW$checker\->num_warnings()\fR" 4
.IX Item "$checker->num_warnings()"
Set (if argument specified) and retrieve the number of warnings found.
.ie n .IP """$checker\->name()""" 4
.el .IP "\f(CW$checker\->name()\fR" 4
.IX Item "$checker->name()"
Set (if argument specified) and retrieve the canonical name of \s-1POD\s0 as
found in the \f(CW\*(C`=head1 NAME\*(C'\fR section.
.ie n .IP """$checker\->node()""" 4
.el .IP "\f(CW$checker\->node()\fR" 4
.IX Item "$checker->node()"
Add (if argument specified) and retrieve the nodes (as defined by \f(CW\*(C`=headX\*(C'\fR
and \f(CW\*(C`=item\*(C'\fR) of the current \s-1POD\s0. 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.
.ie n .IP """$checker\->idx()""" 4
.el .IP "\f(CW$checker\->idx()\fR" 4
.IX Item "$checker->idx()"
Add (if argument specified) and retrieve the index entries (as defined by
\&\f(CW\*(C`X<>\*(C'\fR) of the current \s-1POD\s0. They consist of plain text, each piece
of whitespace is collapsed to a single blank.
.ie n .IP """$checker\->hyperlink()""" 4
.el .IP "\f(CW$checker\->hyperlink()\fR" 4
.IX Item "$checker->hyperlink()"
Add (if argument specified) and retrieve the hyperlinks (as defined by
\&\f(CW\*(C`L<>\*(C'\fR) of the current \s-1POD\s0. They consist of a 2\-item array: line
number and \f(CW\*(C`Pod::Hyperlink\*(C'\fR object.
Please report bugs using <http://rt.cpan.org>.
Brad Appleton <bradapp@enteract.com> (initial version),
Marek Rouchal <marekr@cpan.org>
Based on code for \fB\f(BIPod::Text::pod2text()\fB\fR written by
Tom Christiansen <tchrist@mox.perl.com>
projects / OpenSPARC-T2-SAM / blob