pod2man Command in Linux
The pod2man command in Linux converts a POD file to formatted *roff input, specifically for generating man pages. The *roff refers to a family of text formatting programs used on Unix-like systems to produce documents, particularly man pages and other technical documents.
The term *roff is derived from runoff, an early text formatting system. The most well-known members of the *roff family include troff, nroff, and groff.
Table of Contents
Here is a comprehensive guide to the options available with the pod2man command −
Syntax of pod2man Command
The syntax of the Linux pod2man command is as follows −
pod2man [options] [input [output] ...]
In the above syntax, the [options] field is used to specify optional flags or arguments to customize the behavior. The [input] field is an input file containing the POD source. If omitted, STDIN (standard input) is used. The [output] field is used to specify the output file for the formatted result. If omitted, STDOUT (standard output) is used.
Options of pod2man Command
The pod2man command options are listed below −
| Flags | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -c string | --center=string | Sets the centered page header (default: User Contributed Perl Documentation) |
| -d string | --date=string | Sets the left-hand footer string (default: file's modification date or current date) |
| -e encoding | --encoding=encoding | Specifies the encoding of the output (Default is UTF-8) |
| --errors=style | Set error handling style: die, stderr, pod, or none (Default is die) | |
| --fixed=font | Specifies the fixed-width font for code (default: CW) | |
| --fixedbold=font | Specifies the bold fixed-width font (default: CB) | |
| --fixeditalic=font | Specifies the italic fixed-width font (default: CI) | |
| --fixedbolditalic=font | Specifies the bold italic fixed-width font (default: CB) | |
| --guesswork=rule[,rule...] | Control formatting guesswork, like converting functions or manrefs to bold (Default is all) | |
| -h | --help | Displays usage information |
| -l | --lax | No longer used; accepted for backward compatibility |
| --language=language | Add commands to tell groff the input file is in the given language, like ja for Japanese | |
| --lquote=quote | --rquote=quote | |
| -n name | --name=name | Sets the manual page name (overrides automatic determination) |
| --nourls | Suppress URLs in L<> formatting codes | |
| -o | --official | Marks the page as part of the standard Perl release |
| -q quotes | --quotes=quotes | Sets quote marks for C<> text (supports custom or no quotes) |
| -r | --release | Sets the centered footer (default: Perl version) |
| -s | --section | Sets the section for the .TH macro (default: 1 or 3 for .pm files) |
| --stderr | Redirects errors to standard error instead of including them in the output | |
| -u | --utf8 | Outputs literal UTF-8 characters (requires proper input encoding) |
| -v | --verbose | Prints the name of each generated output file |
Examples of pod2man Command in Linux
This section demonstrates the usage of the pod2man command in Linux with examples −
Converting a POD File to a Manual Page
To convert a POD file to a man page, use the pod2man command in the following way −
pod2man file.pod output.1
The above command converts the file.pod to output.1 manual file. The .1 extension is used for manual pages in Linux. To view the man page, use the man command −
man ./output.1
Note that if no output file is specified the output will be produced in the stdout.
Setting Centered Page Header
To set the centered page header, use the -n or --name option with the name −
pod2man -n MyCommand file.pod output.1
By default, it is the file name.
Setting Manual Page Name
To set the manual page name, use the -c or --center option with the header string −
pod2man -c "My Manual Page" file.pod output.1
Setting Footer Date
To set the specific footer date, use the -d or --date option with the date string −
pod2man -d "2024-12-25" file.pod output.1
Note that the default date is the file's modification date or current date.
Setting Footer Release
To set the footer release, use the -r or --release option −
pod2man -r "v1.0.0" file.pod output.1
By default, it is the Perl version.
Redirecting Errors to Standard Error
To redirect the errors to stderr instead of including them in the output, use the --stderr option with the pod2man command −
pod2man --stderr file.pod output.1
By default, it is the Perl version.
Setting Manual Page as Standard Perl Release
To set the default header to indicate that this manual page is part of the standard Perl release, use the -o or --official option −
pod2man -o file.pod output.1
Setting Language
The --language option in pod2man is used to specify the language of the input file so that the command can apply the appropriate formatting and line-breaking rules for that language. For example, if the POD file is in Japanese, specify ja for it.
pod2man --language=ja file.pod output.1
Other languages are listed below −
| Language | Code |
|---|---|
| English | en |
| Japanese | ja |
| Chinese | zh |
| Korean | ko |
| French | fr |
| German | de |
| Italian | it |
| Spanish | es |
| Portuguese | pt |
| Russian | ru |
| Dutch | nl |
| Swedish | sv |
| Finnish | fi |
| Polish | pl |
| Czech | cs |
| Greek | el |
| Hungarian | hu |
| Turkish | tr |
| Danish | da |
| Norwegian | no |
| Catalan | ca |
| Arabic | ar |
Setting Fixed Width Font
To set the fixed-width font, use the --fixed option with the pod2man command −
pod2man --fixed=CR file.pod output.1
This option specifies the fixed-width font used for verbatim text or code in the output. In this case, it uses the CR font, a pre-defined font in roff. The usual font names for roff are −
- CW for a generic fixed-width font
- CR for the roman fixed-width font
- CI for italic fixed-width font
- CB for bold fixed-width font
- CX for bold-italic fixed-width font
Displaying Usage Help
To display usage help about the pod2man command, use the -h or --help option −
pod2man -help
Conclusion
The pod2man command in Linux is a useful tool for converting POD files into formatted man pages. It provides a range of options to customize the output, such as setting headers, footers, and fonts, as well as managing error handling and language settings. Using various flags and arguments, the conversion process can be customized to fit specific needs, ensuring the man page meets documentation standards.