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How do I link to the Perl POD?

There is a great website which maintains an HTML version of the Perl documentation: perldoc.perl.org.

There are two mechanisms (URL pseudo-schemas) for linking to the documentation contained on that site: perldoc and doc. The former is used for searching the documentation; the latter is for linking directly to documents.

Search the Perl docs:

[perldoc://search terms]

Link directly to a the doc of a function or variable:

[doc://name]
For example:
[doc://-X|file test ops] -> file test ops

Link directly to a specific document by name:

[doc://name]
For example:
[doc://perlipc] -> perlipc

Link to a section internal to a doc:

[doc://name#anchor]
For example:
[doc://perlfaq2#Perl-Books] -> Perl Books

There's also a couple ways to link to module documentation at cpan.org: mod:// and dist://. The former actually does a search of module names, using the given name components as search terms. The latter links directly to the record for the current version of the specificied distribution. If you want to link to a certain module but the search would be too ambiguous (have too many results), you can use the latter form, because it's deterministic. Neither of these forms links directly to a module's man page; the user will have to click through either a page of search results, or a distribution's main record.

Search CPAN for a module:

[mod://module::name]
For example:
[mod://File::Find] -> File::Find
[mod://strict] -> strict

Link to a distribution's record on CPAN:

[dist://distribution-name]
For example:
[dist://Class-Std] -> Class-Std

(Do note that distribution names have hyphens, where module names have double-colons.)

See Also:

What shortcuts can I use for linking to other information?

Especially, read and heed these important shortcut usage tips!


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