Perl::Critic::Policy::Documentation::ProhibitBadAproposMarkup(3)

NAME
Perl::Critic::Policy::Documentation::ProhibitBadAproposMarkup - don't use C<> markup in a NAME section

DESCRIPTION
This policy is part of the "Perl::Critic::Pulp" add-on. It asks you not to write C<> markup in the NAME section of the POD because it comes out badly in the man-db "apropos" database. For example,

    =head1 NAME

    foo - like the C<bar> program     # bad

"pod2man" formats "C<>" using nroff macros which "man-db"'s "lexgrog" program doesn't expand, resulting in unattractive description lines from "apropos" like

    foo - like the *(C`bar*(C' program

Man's actual formatted output is fine, and the desired text is in there, just surrounded by "*(C" bits. On that basis this policy is low severity and under the "cosmetic" theme (see "POLICY THEMES" in Perl::Critic).

The NAME section is everything from "=head1 NAME" to the next "=head1". Other markup like "B<>", "I<>" and "F<>" is allowed because "pod2man" uses builtin "\fB" etc directives for them, which "lexgrog" recognises.

"=begin :man" and "=begin :roff" blocks are checked since "Pod::Man" processes those. Other "=begin" blocks are ignored as they won't appear in the roff output.

  Disabling
If want markup in the NAME line, perhaps if printed output is more important than "apropos", then you can always disable from your .perlcriticrc in the usual way (see "CONFIGURATION" in Perl::Critic),

    [-Documentation::ProhibitBadAproposMarkup]

Or in an individual file with the usual "## no critic"

    ## no critic (ProhibitBadAproposMarkup)

though if the NAME part is after an "__END__" token then "Perl::Critic" 1.112 or higher is required (and the annotation must be before the "__END__").

SEE ALSO
Perl::Critic::Pulp, Perl::Critic, Perl::Critic::Policy::Documentation::RequirePackageMatchesPodName, Perl::Critic::Policy::Documentation::RequirePodSections, Perl::Critic::Policy::Documentation::ProhibitVerbatimMarkup

man(1), apropos(1), lexgrog(1)

HOME PAGE
<http://user42.tuxfamily.org/perl-critic-pulp/index.html>

COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021 Kevin Ryde

Perl-Critic-Pulp is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any later version.

Perl-Critic-Pulp 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. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Perl-Critic-Pulp. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.