Type perlpdf instead of perldoc!

This bash function uses pod2pdf to produce a very nice san-serif font PDF with title and footer and opens it with the "open" command (for OSX, adjust as needed). The tempfile is necessary for the PDF reader (Preview) to have a filename should one choose to save the file as, for example: "perldoc -q array.pdf". pod2pdf seems to call PDF::API2 about 10,000 times per page so it's slow on large documents 

function perlpdf() {
    P=perldoc; 
    X="$P $@"; 
    $P -uT "$@" | 
    pod2pdf --title="$X" --footer-text="$X" > "/tmp/$X.pdf"; 
    open "/tmp/$X.pdf"; 
}

[download]
Type perlpdx instead of perlpdf!

This one uses ghostscript ps2pdf via man via pod2man to produce a plainer looking serif font PDF with a more generic title and footer (perl version/date/etc) and a filename. It seems more complicated but the process is extremely fast. 

function perlpdx(){
    P=perldoc;
    $P -uT "$@" |
    pod2man > "/tmp/$P $*.1";
    man -t "/tmp/$P $*.1" |
    ps2pdf - "/tmp/$P $*.pdf";
    open "/tmp/$P $*.pdf";
}

[download]

In reply to perlpdf for perldoc as PDF by Anonymous Monk

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