NAME

Module::Install::ReadmeFromPod - A Module::Install extension to automatically convert POD to a README

SYNOPSIS

  # In Makefile.PL
  use inc::Module::Install;
  author 'Vestan Pants';
  license 'perl';
  readme_from 'lib/Some/Module.pm';
  readme_from 'lib/Some/Module.pm', { clean => 1, format => 'htm', output_file => 'SomeModule.html' };

A "README" file will be generated from the POD of the indicated module file.

Note that the author will need to make sure "Module::Install::ReadmeFromPod" is installed before running the "Makefile.PL". (The extension will be bundled into the user-side distribution).

DESCRIPTION

Module::Install::ReadmeFromPod is a Module::Install extension that generates a "README" file automatically from an indicated file containing POD, whenever the author runs "Makefile.PL". Several output formats are supported: plain-text, HTML, PDF or manpage.

COMMANDS

This plugin adds the following Module::Install command:

"readme_from"

Does nothing on the user-side. On the author-side it will generate a "README" file.

  readme_from 'lib/Some/Module.pm';

If a second parameter is set to a true value then the "README" will be removed at "make distclean".

  readme_from 'lib/Some/Module.pm', 1;

A third parameter can be used to determine the format of the "README" file.

  readme_from 'lib/Some/Module.pm', 1, 'htm';

Valid formats for this third parameter are:

txt, text: Produce a plain-text "README" file using Pod::Text. The 'txt' format is the default.
htm, html: Produce an HTML "README.htm" file using Pod::Html.
man: Produce a "README.1" manpage using Pod::Man.
md: Produce a "README.md" file using Pod::Markdown.
pdf: Produce a PDF "README.pdf" file with App::pod2pdf if this module is installed.

A fourth parameter can be used to supply an output filename.

  readme_from 'lib/Some/Module.pm', 0, 'pdf', 'SomeModule.pdf';

Finally, you can pass additional arguments to the POD formatter that handles the requested format.

  my @options = ( 'release' => 1.03, 'section' => 8 ); # options for Pod::Man
  readme_from 'lib/Some/Module.pm', 1, 'man', undef, @options;

But instead of passing this long list of optional arguments to readme_from, you should probably pass these arguments as a named hashref for clarity.

  my @options = ( 'release' => 1.03, 'section' => 8 );
  readme_from 'lib/Some/Module.pm', {clean => 1, format => 'man', output_file => undef, options => @options};

If you use the "all_from" command, "readme_from" will default to that value.

  all_from 'lib/Some/Module.pm';
  readme_from;              # Create README from lib/Some/Module.pm
  readme_from '','clean';   # Put a empty string before 'clean'

AUTHOR

Chris "BinGOs" Williams

LICENSE