[Chapter 7] 7.2.50 Pod::Text - Convert POD Data to Formatted ASCII Text
Author: Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen & Randal L. Schwartz
Date: 1999-07-02T02:03:26Z

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| Chapter 7 The Standard Perl Library |

### 7.2.50 Pod::Text - Convert POD Data to Formatted ASCII Text

    use Pod::Text;

    pod2text("perlfunc.pod", *filehandle);  # send formatted output to file
    $text = pod2text("perlfunc.pod");       # assign formatted output to $text

Pod::Text converts documentation in the POD format (such as can be found throughout the Perl distribution) into formatted ASCII text. Termcap is optionally supported for boldface/underline, and can be enabled with:

    $Pod::Text::termcap=1

If termcap is not enabled, backspaces are used to simulate bold and underlined text.

The `pod2text()` subroutine can take one or two arguments. The first is the name of a file to read the POD from, or `"<&STDIN"` to read from `STDIN`. The second argument, if provided, is a filehandle glob where output should be sent. (Use `*STDOUT` to write to `STDOUT`.)

A separate pod2text program is included as part of the standard Perl distribution. Primarily, a wrapper for Pod::Text, it can be invoked this way:

    pod2text < input.pod

7.2.49 POSIX - Perl Interface to IEEE Std 1003.1 |  | 7.2.51 Safe - Create Safe Namespaces for Evaluating Perl Code