---
name: "podbuildtoc"
section: "1"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/podbuildtoc"
---

# podbuildtoc(1)

Generate table of contents

## NAME

pod/buildtoc - Generate table of contents

## DESCRIPTION

This program generates a table of contents for the documentation included in the Perl core distribution.  This table of contents takes two forms:

- 1 *pod/perltoc.pod*

  A file in Perl's Plain Old Documentation (POD) format found in the *pod/* directory in the core distribution.  Once Perl is installed, this file becomes accessible system-wide via `"perldoc perltoc"`.

- 2 *pod/roffitall*

  A shell script originally written by Tom Christiansen and Raphael Manfredi, also found in the *pod/* directory, which can be used to translate Perl documentation into *man* pages.

## USAGE

This program will typically **not** need to be called directly by a user.  Rather, it is one of the last commands invoked during `"make test_prep"`:

```
    ./perl -Ilib -I. -f pod/buildtoc -q
```

The only command-line switch is `"-q|--quiet"`, which quiets some non-critical warnings.

### Diagnosing Problems

This program `"require"`s *Porting/pod\_lib.pl* and makes use of several subroutines found in that file:  `get_pod_metadata()` and `pods_to_install()` in particular.  Consequently, any warnings or exceptions you see when this program is running may be being passed through from those subroutines.  You may have to (a) examine those subroutines and/or (b) run that program from the command-line to fully understand what is causing such warnings or exceptions.

### AUTHORS and MAINTENANCE

This program was introduced into the Perl 5 core distribution by Andy Dougherty, based on earlier work by Tom Christiansen.  It is maintained by the Perl 5 Porters.