> perldoc -v $1

before people start complaining, this doesn't work with 5.10!¹

       -v   Describes search for the item in detail (verbosely).

And when using Linux, better care about hiding $1 from bash-expansion.

perldoc -v '$1'

Cheers Rolf

¹) dunno when it was introduced...

UPDATE:

CHANGES

Up to 3.14_05, the switch -v was used to produce verbose messages 
of perldoc operation, which is now enabled by -D.

[download]

ehm 3?

In reply to Re^2: Difference between $1 and \1. (perldoc -v) by LanX
in thread Difference between $1 and \1. by rbala

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