FM / pod

/usr/share/perl5/pod

Name	Size	Mode	Actions
a2p.pod	6107	0644	edit dl rm
perl.pod	15748	0644	edit dl rm
perl56delta.pod	107184	0644	edit dl rm
perl58delta.pod	114908	0644	edit dl rm
perl561delta.pod	124697	0644	edit dl rm
perl570delta.pod	21655	0644	edit dl rm
perl571delta.pod	30382	0644	edit dl rm
perl572delta.pod	25551	0644	edit dl rm
perl573delta.pod	4644	0644	edit dl rm
perl581delta.pod	38060	0644	edit dl rm
perl582delta.pod	4470	0644	edit dl rm
perl583delta.pod	6335	0644	edit dl rm
perl584delta.pod	7363	0644	edit dl rm
perl585delta.pod	5889	0644	edit dl rm
perl586delta.pod	4651	0644	edit dl rm
perl587delta.pod	8357	0644	edit dl rm
perl588delta.pod	25267	0644	edit dl rm
perl589delta.pod	53905	0644	edit dl rm
perl590delta.pod	34951	0644	edit dl rm
perl591delta.pod	11173	0644	edit dl rm
perl592delta.pod	10954	0644	edit dl rm
perl593delta.pod	17034	0644	edit dl rm
perl594delta.pod	12661	0644	edit dl rm
perl595delta.pod	18934	0644	edit dl rm
perl5004delta.pod	56240	0644	edit dl rm
perl5005delta.pod	34285	0644	edit dl rm
perl5100delta.pod	53922	0644	edit dl rm
perl5101delta.pod	43877	0644	edit dl rm
perlaix.pod	18128	0644	edit dl rm
perlamiga.pod	7031	0644	edit dl rm
perlapi.pod	169428	0644	edit dl rm
perlapio.pod	19332	0644	edit dl rm
perlapollo.pod	829	0644	edit dl rm
perlartistic.pod	6802	0644	edit dl rm
perlbeos.pod	2939	0644	edit dl rm
perlbook.pod	663	0644	edit dl rm
perlboot.pod	28355	0644	edit dl rm
perlbot.pod	11675	0644	edit dl rm
perlbs2000.pod	7929	0644	edit dl rm
perlcall.pod	55173	0644	edit dl rm
perlce.pod	9257	0644	edit dl rm
perlcheat.pod	4153	0644	edit dl rm
perlclib.pod	7684	0644	edit dl rm
perlcn.pod	4915	0644	edit dl rm
perlcommunity.pod	6398	0644	edit dl rm
perlcompile.pod	9516	0644	edit dl rm
perlcygwin.pod	28183	0644	edit dl rm
perldata.pod	36879	0644	edit dl rm
perldbmfilter.pod	4987	0644	edit dl rm
perldebguts.pod	31887	0644	edit dl rm
perldebtut.pod	21304	0644	edit dl rm
perldebug.pod	37535	0644	edit dl rm
perldelta.pod	43877	0644	edit dl rm
perldgux.pod	2821	0644	edit dl rm
perldiag.pod	183151	0644	edit dl rm
perldoc.pod	7310	0644	edit dl rm
perldos.pod	10853	0644	edit dl rm
perldsc.pod	25447	0644	edit dl rm
perlebcdic.pod	66607	0644	edit dl rm
perlembed.pod	38033	0644	edit dl rm
perlepoc.pod	3779	0644	edit dl rm
perlfaq.pod	24841	0644	edit dl rm
perlfaq1.pod	17762	0644	edit dl rm
perlfaq2.pod	21614	0644	edit dl rm
perlfaq3.pod	38534	0644	edit dl rm
perlfaq4.pod	81412	0644	edit dl rm
perlfaq5.pod	49201	0644	edit dl rm
perlfaq6.pod	38538	0644	edit dl rm
perlfaq7.pod	37588	0644	edit dl rm
perlfaq8.pod	46128	0644	edit dl rm
perlfaq9.pod	24191	0644	edit dl rm
perlfilter.pod	21140	0644	edit dl rm
perlfork.pod	11440	0644	edit dl rm
perlform.pod	16894	0644	edit dl rm
perlfreebsd.pod	1950	0644	edit dl rm
perlfunc.pod	291909	0644	edit dl rm
perlglossary.pod	112139	0644	edit dl rm
perlgpl.pod	18806	0644	edit dl rm
perlguts.pod	105182	0644	edit dl rm
perlhack.pod	121512	0644	edit dl rm
perlhaiku.pod	1504	0644	edit dl rm
perlhist.pod	38766	0644	edit dl rm
perlhpux.pod	28650	0644	edit dl rm
perlhurd.pod	1990	0644	edit dl rm
perlintern.pod	26408	0644	edit dl rm
perlintro.pod	21491	0644	edit dl rm
perliol.pod	33755	0644	edit dl rm
perlipc.pod	67761	0644	edit dl rm
perlirix.pod	4397	0644	edit dl rm
perljp.pod	8070	0644	edit dl rm
perlko.pod	7892	0644	edit dl rm
perllexwarn.pod	14435	0644	edit dl rm
perllinux.pod	1492	0644	edit dl rm
perllocale.pod	41616	0644	edit dl rm
perllol.pod	8252	0644	edit dl rm
perlmachten.pod	4500	0644	edit dl rm
perlmacos.pod	2111	0644	edit dl rm
perlmacosx.pod	11322	0644	edit dl rm
perlmint.pod	9539	0644	edit dl rm
perlmod.pod	24494	0644	edit dl rm
perlmodinstall.pod	13929	0644	edit dl rm
perlmodlib.pod	77333	0644	edit dl rm
perlmodstyle.pod	21114	0644	edit dl rm
perlmpeix.pod	15087	0644	edit dl rm
perlmroapi.pod	2959	0644	edit dl rm
perlnetware.pod	6488	0644	edit dl rm
perlnewmod.pod	11214	0644	edit dl rm
perlnumber.pod	8352	0644	edit dl rm
perlobj.pod	21813	0644	edit dl rm
perlop.pod	96225	0644	edit dl rm
perlopenbsd.pod	1207	0644	edit dl rm
perlopentut.pod	37997	0644	edit dl rm
perlos2.pod	92783	0644	edit dl rm
perlos390.pod	16074	0644	edit dl rm
perlos400.pod	4618	0644	edit dl rm
perlothrtut.pod	40657	0644	edit dl rm
perlpacktut.pod	51047	0644	edit dl rm
perlperf.pod	51328	0644	edit dl rm
perlplan9.pod	5125	0644	edit dl rm
perlpod.pod	21626	0644	edit dl rm
perlpodspec.pod	67792	0644	edit dl rm
perlport.pod	86302	0644	edit dl rm
perlpragma.pod	4320	0644	edit dl rm
perlqnx.pod	4246	0644	edit dl rm
perlre.pod	82798	0644	edit dl rm
perlreapi.pod	25427	0644	edit dl rm
perlrebackslash.pod	20109	0644	edit dl rm
perlrecharclass.pod	21909	0644	edit dl rm
perlref.pod	26465	0644	edit dl rm
perlreftut.pod	18670	0644	edit dl rm
perlreguts.pod	36877	0644	edit dl rm
perlrepository.pod	23453	0644	edit dl rm
perlrequick.pod	17617	0644	edit dl rm
perlreref.pod	11996	0644	edit dl rm
perlretut.pod	115005	0644	edit dl rm
perlriscos.pod	1511	0644	edit dl rm
perlrun.pod	49928	0644	edit dl rm
perlsec.pod	23542	0644	edit dl rm
perlsolaris.pod	29131	0644	edit dl rm
perlstyle.pod	8618	0644	edit dl rm
perlsub.pod	54222	0644	edit dl rm
perlsymbian.pod	16222	0644	edit dl rm
perlsyn.pod	31090	0644	edit dl rm
perlthrtut.pod	46510	0644	edit dl rm
perltie.pod	36665	0644	edit dl rm
perltoc.pod	642987	0644	edit dl rm
perltodo.pod	48360	0644	edit dl rm
perltooc.pod	51425	0644	edit dl rm
perltoot.pod	68625	0644	edit dl rm
perltrap.pod	41151	0644	edit dl rm
perltru64.pod	7736	0644	edit dl rm
perltw.pod	5384	0644	edit dl rm
perlunicode.pod	56169	0644	edit dl rm
perlunifaq.pod	12878	0644	edit dl rm
perluniintro.pod	32973	0644	edit dl rm
perlunitut.pod	7907	0644	edit dl rm
perlutil.pod	9881	0644	edit dl rm
perluts.pod	3180	0644	edit dl rm
perlvar.pod	59133	0644	edit dl rm
perlvmesa.pod	3952	0644	edit dl rm
perlvms.pod	52545	0644	edit dl rm
perlvos.pod	5567	0644	edit dl rm
perlwin32.pod	40809	0644	edit dl rm
perlxs.pod	74194	0644	edit dl rm
perlxstut.pod	49670	0644	edit dl rm

Edit: /usr/share/perl5/pod/perlform.pod (16894B)

=head1 NAME
X<format> X<report> X<chart>

perlform - Perl formats

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Perl has a mechanism to help you generate simple reports and charts.  To
facilitate this, Perl helps you code up your output page close to how it
will look when it's printed.  It can keep track of things like how many
lines are on a page, what page you're on, when to print page headers,
etc.  Keywords are borrowed from FORTRAN: format() to declare and write()
to execute; see their entries in L<perlfunc>.  Fortunately, the layout is
much more legible, more like BASIC's PRINT USING statement.  Think of it
as a poor man's nroff(1).
X<nroff>

Formats, like packages and subroutines, are declared rather than
executed, so they may occur at any point in your program.  (Usually it's
best to keep them all together though.) They have their own namespace
apart from all the other "types" in Perl.  This means that if you have a
function named "Foo", it is not the same thing as having a format named
"Foo".  However, the default name for the format associated with a given
filehandle is the same as the name of the filehandle.  Thus, the default
format for STDOUT is named "STDOUT", and the default format for filehandle
TEMP is named "TEMP".  They just look the same.  They aren't.

Output record formats are declared as follows:

format NAME =
    FORMLIST
    .

If the name is omitted, format "STDOUT" is defined. A single "." in 
column 1 is used to terminate a format.  FORMLIST consists of a sequence 
of lines, each of which may be one of three types:

=over 4

=item 1.

A comment, indicated by putting a '#' in the first column.

=item 2.

A "picture" line giving the format for one output line.

=item 3.

An argument line supplying values to plug into the previous picture line.

=back

Picture lines contain output field definitions, intermingled with
literal text. These lines do not undergo any kind of variable interpolation.
Field definitions are made up from a set of characters, for starting and
extending a field to its desired width. This is the complete set of
characters for field definitions:
X<format, picture line>
X<@> X<^> X<< < >> X<< | >> X<< > >> X<#> X<0> X<.> X<...>
X<@*> X<^*> X<~> X<~~>

@    start of regular field
   ^    start of special field
   <    pad character for left justification
   |    pad character for centering
   >    pad character for right justification
   #    pad character for a right justified numeric field
   0    instead of first #: pad number with leading zeroes
   .    decimal point within a numeric field
   ...  terminate a text field, show "..." as truncation evidence
   @*   variable width field for a multi-line value
   ^*   variable width field for next line of a multi-line value
   ~    suppress line with all fields empty
   ~~   repeat line until all fields are exhausted

Each field in a picture line starts with either "@" (at) or "^" (caret),
indicating what we'll call, respectively, a "regular" or "special" field.
The choice of pad characters determines whether a field is textual or
numeric. The tilde operators are not part of a field.  Let's look at
the various possibilities in detail.

=head2 Text Fields
X<format, text field>

The length of the field is supplied by padding out the field with multiple 
"E<lt>", "E<gt>", or "|" characters to specify a non-numeric field with,
respectively, left justification, right justification, or centering. 
For a regular field, the value (up to the first newline) is taken and
printed according to the selected justification, truncating excess characters.
If you terminate a text field with "...", three dots will be shown if
the value is truncated. A special text field may be used to do rudimentary 
multi-line text block filling; see L</Using Fill Mode> for details.

Example:
      format STDOUT =
      @<<<<<<   @||||||   @>>>>>>
      "left",   "middle", "right"
      .
   Output:
      left      middle    right

=head2 Numeric Fields
X<#> X<format, numeric field>

Using "#" as a padding character specifies a numeric field, with
right justification. An optional "." defines the position of the
decimal point. With a "0" (zero) instead of the first "#", the
formatted number will be padded with leading zeroes if necessary.
A special numeric field is blanked out if the value is undefined.
If the resulting value would exceed the width specified the field is
filled with "#" as overflow evidence.

Example:
      format STDOUT =
      @###   @.###   @##.###  @###   @###   ^####
       42,   3.1415,  undef,    0, 10000,   undef
      .
   Output:
        42   3.142     0.000     0   ####

=head2 The Field @* for Variable Width Multi-Line Text
X<@*>

The field "@*" can be used for printing multi-line, nontruncated
values; it should (but need not) appear by itself on a line. A final
line feed is chomped off, but all other characters are emitted verbatim.

=head2 The Field ^* for Variable Width One-line-at-a-time Text
X<^*>

Like "@*", this is a variable width field. The value supplied must be a 
scalar variable. Perl puts the first line (up to the first "\n") of the 
text into the field, and then chops off the front of the string so that 
the next time the variable is referenced, more of the text can be printed. 
The variable will I<not> be restored.

Example:
      $text = "line 1\nline 2\nline 3";
      format STDOUT =
      Text: ^*
            $text
      ~~    ^*
            $text
      .
   Output:
      Text: line 1
            line 2
            line 3

=head2 Specifying Values
X<format, specifying values>

The values are specified on the following format line in the same order as
the picture fields.  The expressions providing the values must be
separated by commas.  They are all evaluated in a list context
before the line is processed, so a single list expression could produce
multiple list elements.  The expressions may be spread out to more than
one line if enclosed in braces.  If so, the opening brace must be the first
token on the first line.  If an expression evaluates to a number with a
decimal part, and if the corresponding picture specifies that the decimal
part should appear in the output (that is, any picture except multiple "#"
characters B<without> an embedded "."), the character used for the decimal
point is B<always> determined by the current LC_NUMERIC locale.  This
means that, if, for example, the run-time environment happens to specify a
German locale, "," will be used instead of the default ".".  See
L<perllocale> and L<"WARNINGS"> for more information.

=head2 Using Fill Mode
X<format, fill mode>

On text fields the caret enables a kind of fill mode.  Instead of an
arbitrary expression, the value supplied must be a scalar variable
that contains a text string.  Perl puts the next portion of the text into
the field, and then chops off the front of the string so that the next time
the variable is referenced, more of the text can be printed.  (Yes, this
means that the variable itself is altered during execution of the write()
call, and is not restored.)  The next portion of text is determined by
a crude line breaking algorithm. You may use the carriage return character
(C<\r>) to force a line break. You can change which characters are legal 
to break on by changing the variable C<$:> (that's 
$FORMAT_LINE_BREAK_CHARACTERS if you're using the English module) to a 
list of the desired characters.

Normally you would use a sequence of fields in a vertical stack associated 
with the same scalar variable to print out a block of text. You might wish 
to end the final field with the text "...", which will appear in the output 
if the text was too long to appear in its entirety.

=head2 Suppressing Lines Where All Fields Are Void
X<format, suppressing lines>

Using caret fields can produce lines where all fields are blank. You can
suppress such lines by putting a "~" (tilde) character anywhere in the
line.  The tilde will be translated to a space upon output.

=head2 Repeating Format Lines
X<format, repeating lines>

If you put two contiguous tilde characters "~~" anywhere into a line,
the line will be repeated until all the fields on the line are exhausted,
i.e. undefined. For special (caret) text fields this will occur sooner or
later, but if you use a text field of the at variety, the  expression you
supply had better not give the same value every time forever! (C<shift(@f)>
is a simple example that would work.)  Don't use a regular (at) numeric 
field in such lines, because it will never go blank.

=head2 Top of Form Processing
X<format, top of form> X<top> X<header>

Top-of-form processing is by default handled by a format with the
same name as the current filehandle with "_TOP" concatenated to it.
It's triggered at the top of each page.  See L<perlfunc/write>.

Examples:

# a report on the /etc/passwd file
 format STDOUT_TOP =
                         Passwd File
 Name                Login    Office   Uid   Gid Home
 ------------------------------------------------------------------
 .
 format STDOUT =
 @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< @||||||| @<<<<<<@>>>> @>>>> @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
 $name,              $login,  $office,$uid,$gid, $home
 .

# a report from a bug report form
 format STDOUT_TOP =
                         Bug Reports
 @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<     @|||         @>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 $system,                      $%,         $date
 ------------------------------------------------------------------
 .
 format STDOUT =
 Subject: @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
          $subject
 Index: @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
        $index,                       $description
 Priority: @<<<<<<<<<< Date: @<<<<<<< ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
           $priority,        $date,   $description
 From: @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
       $from,                         $description
 Assigned to: @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
              $programmer,            $description
 ~                                    ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
                                      $description
 ~                                    ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
                                      $description
 ~                                    ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
                                      $description
 ~                                    ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
                                      $description
 ~                                    ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<...
                                      $description
 .

It is possible to intermix print()s with write()s on the same output
channel, but you'll have to handle C<$-> (C<$FORMAT_LINES_LEFT>)
yourself.

=head2 Format Variables
X<format variables>
X<format, variables>

The current format name is stored in the variable C<$~> (C<$FORMAT_NAME>),
and the current top of form format name is in C<$^> (C<$FORMAT_TOP_NAME>).
The current output page number is stored in C<$%> (C<$FORMAT_PAGE_NUMBER>),
and the number of lines on the page is in C<$=> (C<$FORMAT_LINES_PER_PAGE>).
Whether to autoflush output on this handle is stored in C<$|>
(C<$OUTPUT_AUTOFLUSH>).  The string output before each top of page (except
the first) is stored in C<$^L> (C<$FORMAT_FORMFEED>).  These variables are
set on a per-filehandle basis, so you'll need to select() into a different
one to affect them:

select((select(OUTF),
	    $~ = "My_Other_Format",
	    $^ = "My_Top_Format"
	   )[0]);

Pretty ugly, eh?  It's a common idiom though, so don't be too surprised
when you see it.  You can at least use a temporary variable to hold
the previous filehandle: (this is a much better approach in general,
because not only does legibility improve, you now have intermediary
stage in the expression to single-step the debugger through):

$ofh = select(OUTF);
    $~ = "My_Other_Format";
    $^ = "My_Top_Format";
    select($ofh);

If you use the English module, you can even read the variable names:

use English '-no_match_vars';
    $ofh = select(OUTF);
    $FORMAT_NAME     = "My_Other_Format";
    $FORMAT_TOP_NAME = "My_Top_Format";
    select($ofh);

But you still have those funny select()s.  So just use the FileHandle
module.  Now, you can access these special variables using lowercase
method names instead:

use FileHandle;
    format_name     OUTF "My_Other_Format";
    format_top_name OUTF "My_Top_Format";

Much better!

=head1 NOTES

Because the values line may contain arbitrary expressions (for at fields,
not caret fields), you can farm out more sophisticated processing
to other functions, like sprintf() or one of your own.  For example:

format Ident =
	@<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
	&commify($n)
    .

To get a real at or caret into the field, do this:

format Ident =
    I have an @ here.
	    "@"
    .

To center a whole line of text, do something like this:

format Ident =
    @|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
	    "Some text line"
    .

There is no builtin way to say "float this to the right hand side
of the page, however wide it is."  You have to specify where it goes.
The truly desperate can generate their own format on the fly, based
on the current number of columns, and then eval() it:

$format  = "format STDOUT = \n"
             . '^' . '<' x $cols . "\n"
             . '$entry' . "\n"
             . "\t^" . "<" x ($cols-8) . "~~\n"
             . '$entry' . "\n"
             . ".\n";
    print $format if $Debugging;
    eval $format;
    die $@ if $@;

Which would generate a format looking something like this:

format STDOUT =
 ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
 $entry
         ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<~~
 $entry
 .

Here's a little program that's somewhat like fmt(1):

format =
 ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ~~
 $_

$/ = '';
 while (<>) {
     s/\s*\n\s*/ /g;
     write;
 }

=head2 Footers
X<format, footer> X<footer>

While $FORMAT_TOP_NAME contains the name of the current header format,
there is no corresponding mechanism to automatically do the same thing
for a footer.  Not knowing how big a format is going to be until you
evaluate it is one of the major problems.  It's on the TODO list.

Here's one strategy:  If you have a fixed-size footer, you can get footers
by checking $FORMAT_LINES_LEFT before each write() and print the footer
yourself if necessary.

Here's another strategy: Open a pipe to yourself, using C<open(MYSELF, "|-")>
(see L<perlfunc/open()>) and always write() to MYSELF instead of STDOUT.
Have your child process massage its STDIN to rearrange headers and footers
however you like.  Not very convenient, but doable.

=head2 Accessing Formatting Internals
X<format, internals>

For low-level access to the formatting mechanism.  you may use formline()
and access C<$^A> (the $ACCUMULATOR variable) directly.

For example:

$str = formline <<'END', 1,2,3;
    @<<<  @|||  @>>>
    END

print "Wow, I just stored `$^A' in the accumulator!\n";

Or to make an swrite() subroutine, which is to write() what sprintf()
is to printf(), do this:

use Carp;
    sub swrite {
	croak "usage: swrite PICTURE ARGS" unless @_;
	my $format = shift;
	$^A = "";
	formline($format,@_);
	return $^A;
    }

$string = swrite(<<'END', 1, 2, 3);
 Check me out
 @<<<  @|||  @>>>
 END
    print $string;

=head1 WARNINGS

The lone dot that ends a format can also prematurely end a mail
message passing through a misconfigured Internet mailer (and based on
experience, such misconfiguration is the rule, not the exception).  So
when sending format code through mail, you should indent it so that
the format-ending dot is not on the left margin; this will prevent
SMTP cutoff.

Lexical variables (declared with "my") are not visible within a
format unless the format is declared within the scope of the lexical
variable.  (They weren't visible at all before version 5.001.)

Formats are the only part of Perl that unconditionally use information
from a program's locale; if a program's environment specifies an
LC_NUMERIC locale, it is always used to specify the decimal point
character in formatted output.  Perl ignores all other aspects of locale
handling unless the C<use locale> pragma is in effect.  Formatted output
cannot be controlled by C<use locale> because the pragma is tied to the
block structure of the program, and, for historical reasons, formats
exist outside that block structure.  See L<perllocale> for further
discussion of locale handling.

Within strings that are to be displayed in a fixed length text field,
each control character is substituted by a space. (But remember the
special meaning of C<\r> when using fill mode.) This is done to avoid
misalignment when control characters "disappear" on some output media.

cmd: