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						 2026-06-12						POD2USAGE(1)