http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=484443


in reply to detecting pod in files?

I wouldn't call it easyer but at the first detection of a pod directive I would set the flag an bail out of the loop instead of searching the rest of the file. It is also posible that a file will not contain '=pod' but still have pod in it. I would use something like this: 
my $file = '/tmp/file';
open(IN, "<$file") or die "$0: cannot read file '$file': $!";
my $pod = 0;
while (<IN>) { $pod = 1, last if /^=\w/ }
#/^=(pod|head\d|over|item|back|cut)/ might be more accurate
#=begin, =end, and =for are ommited because they would
#usualy be ignored by pod2*
close(IN);
pod2html($file) if $pod;

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Re^2: detecting pod in files?
by brian_d_foy (Abbot) on Aug 17, 2005 at 17:17 UTC

    You can't do it this simply. Although a pod directive starts at the beginning of a line with an =, that has to happen when Perl isn't expecting something else. (Curiously, BBEdit gets this wrong too). 

    # this isn't pod
$time

=time

;

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    Or 
    $string =<<"HERE";

=value

=item

HERE

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    You can can't just look for a particular pod directive (such as =pod, in the original post, because it might not show up. Indeed, I have rarely used =pod.

    There are plenty of Pod modules, so use those instead of rolling your own. :)

    --
    brian d foy <brian@stonehenge.com>
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