--- name: "Pod::Simple::PullParser" section: "3perl" platform: "linux" package: "perl" version: "5.44.0-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/Pod::Simple::PullParser/3perl" --- # Pod::Simple::PullParser(3perl) ## NAME Pod::Simple::PullParser -- a pull-parser interface to parsing Pod ## SYNOPSIS ``` my $parser = SomePodProcessor->new; $parser->set_source( "whatever.pod" ); $parser->run; ``` Or: ``` my $parser = SomePodProcessor->new; $parser->set_source( $some_filehandle_object ); $parser->run; ``` Or: ``` my $parser = SomePodProcessor->new; $parser->set_source( \$document_source ); $parser->run; ``` Or: ``` my $parser = SomePodProcessor->new; $parser->set_source( \@document_lines ); $parser->run; ``` And elsewhere: ``` require 5; package SomePodProcessor; use strict; use base qw(Pod::Simple::PullParser); sub run { my $self = shift; Token: while(my $token = $self->get_token) { ...process each token... } } ``` ## DESCRIPTION This class is for using Pod::Simple to build a Pod processor -- but one that uses an interface based on a stream of token objects, instead of based on events. This is a subclass of Pod::Simple and inherits all its methods. A subclass of Pod::Simple::PullParser should define a `"run"` method that calls `"$token = $parser->get_token"` to pull tokens. See the source for Pod::Simple::RTF for an example of a formatter that uses Pod::Simple::PullParser. ## METHODS - my $token = $parser-\>get\_token This returns the next token object (which will be of a subclass of Pod::Simple::PullParserToken), or undef if the parser-stream has hit the end of the document. - $parser-\>unget\_token( $token ) - $parser-\>unget\_token( $token1, $token2, ... ) This restores the token object(s) to the front of the parser stream. The source has to be set before you can parse anything. The lowest-level way is to call `"set_source"`: - $parser-\>set\_source( $filename ) - $parser-\>set\_source( $filehandle\_object ) - $parser-\>set\_source( \\$document\_source ) - $parser-\>set\_source( \\@document\_lines ) Or you can call these methods, which Pod::Simple::PullParser has defined to work just like Pod::Simple's same-named methods: - $parser-\>parse\_file(...) - $parser-\>parse\_string\_document(...) - $parser-\>filter(...) - $parser-\>parse\_from\_file(...) For those to work, the Pod-processing subclass of Pod::Simple::PullParser has to have defined a `$parser`-\>run method -- so it is advised that all Pod::Simple::PullParser subclasses do so. See the Synopsis above, or the source for Pod::Simple::RTF. Authors of formatter subclasses might find these methods useful to call on a parser object that you haven't started pulling tokens from yet: - my $title\_string = $parser-\>get\_title This tries to get the title string out of `$parser`, by getting some tokens, and scanning them for the title, and then ungetting them so that you can process the token-stream from the beginning. For example, suppose you have a document that starts out: ``` =head1 NAME Hoo::Boy::Wowza -- Stuff B yeah! ``` `$parser`-\>get\_title on that document will return "Hoo::Boy::Wowza -- Stuff wow yeah!". If the document starts with: ``` =head1 Name Hoo::Boy::W00t -- Stuff B yeah! ``` Then you'll need to pass the `"nocase"` option in order to recognize "Name": ``` $parser->get_title(nocase => 1); ``` In cases where get\_title can't find the title, it will return empty-string (""). - my $title\_string = $parser-\>get\_short\_title This is just like get\_title, except that it returns just the modulename, if the title seems to be of the form "SomeModuleName -- description". For example, suppose you have a document that starts out: ``` =head1 NAME Hoo::Boy::Wowza -- Stuff B yeah! ``` then `$parser`-\>get\_short\_title on that document will return "Hoo::Boy::Wowza". But if the document starts out: ``` =head1 NAME Hooboy, stuff B yeah! ``` then `$parser`-\>get\_short\_title on that document will return "Hooboy, stuff wow yeah!". If the document starts with: ``` =head1 Name Hoo::Boy::W00t -- Stuff B yeah! ``` Then you'll need to pass the `"nocase"` option in order to recognize "Name": ``` $parser->get_short_title(nocase => 1); ``` If the title can't be found, then get\_short\_title returns empty-string (""). - $author\_name = $parser-\>get\_author This works like get\_title except that it returns the contents of the "=head1 AUTHOR\\n\\nParagraph...\\n" section, assuming that that section isn't terribly long. To recognize a "=head1 Author\\n\\nParagraph\\n" section, pass the `"nocase"` option: ``` $parser->get_author(nocase => 1); ``` (This method tolerates "AUTHORS" instead of "AUTHOR" too.) - $description\_name = $parser-\>get\_description This works like get\_title except that it returns the contents of the "=head1 DESCRIPTION\\n\\nParagraph...\\n" section, assuming that that section isn't terribly long. To recognize a "=head1 Description\\n\\nParagraph\\n" section, pass the `"nocase"` option: ``` $parser->get_description(nocase => 1); ``` - $version\_block = $parser-\>get\_version This works like get\_title except that it returns the contents of the "=head1 VERSION\\n\\n\[BIG BLOCK\]\\n" block. Note that this does NOT return the module's `$VERSION`!! To recognize a "=head1 Version\\n\\n\[BIG BLOCK\]\\n" section, pass the `"nocase"` option: ``` $parser->get_version(nocase => 1); ``` ## NOTE You don't actually *have* to define a `"run"` method. If you're writing a Pod-formatter class, you should define a `"run"` just so that users can call `"parse_file"` etc, but you don't *have* to. And if you're not writing a formatter class, but are instead just writing a program that does something simple with a Pod::PullParser object (and not an object of a subclass), then there's no reason to bother subclassing to add a `"run"` method. ## SEE ALSO Pod::Simple Pod::Simple::PullParserToken -- and its subclasses Pod::Simple::PullParserStartToken, Pod::Simple::PullParserTextToken, and Pod::Simple::PullParserEndToken. HTML::TokeParser, which inspired this. ## SUPPORT Questions or discussion about POD and Pod::Simple should be sent to the pod-people@perl.org mail list. Send an empty email to pod-people-subscribe@perl.org to subscribe. This module is managed in an open GitHub repository, \. Feel free to fork and contribute, or to clone \ and send patches! Patches against Pod::Simple are welcome. Please send bug reports to \. ## COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMERS Copyright (c) 2002 Sean M. Burke. This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. ## AUTHOR Pod::Simple was created by Sean M. Burke \. But don't bother him, he's retired. Pod::Simple is maintained by: - • Allison Randal `"allison@perl.org"` - • Hans Dieter Pearcey `"hdp@cpan.org"` - • David E. Wheeler `"dwheeler@cpan.org"`