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in reply to pod::usage "-sections" not working

After fixing several syntax errors in your code, I get -special to work by adding a blank line after each =head1 line: 
use warnings;
use strict;
use Pod::Usage;
use Getopt::Long;

GetOptions("help");

=head1 SYNOPSIS

         here's the main usage stuff

=head1 SPECIAL

        special usage stuff here...

=cut

# This prints SYNOPSIS above just fine as expected:
#pod2usage(-verbose => 0) if ($opt_help);  

# This only prints the '-message' and nothing else:
pod2usage({-verbose => 99,
           -sections => [qw(SPECIAL)],
           -message => "Here's special stuff...\n",
          });

__END__

Here's special stuff...

Special:
            special usage stuff here...

[download]

You should use podchecker on your code: 

*** WARNING: empty section in previous paragraph at line ... in file .
+..

[download]

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Re^2: pod::usage "-sections" not working
by johnguillory (Initiate) on Apr 25, 2013 at 18:31 UTC

    Weird...I've copied your code and still getting just the message and not the pod section "special". No doubt I must be overlooking something simple. I'll look some more. Thanks toolic. J

[reply]
      If what you say is based on accurate copy/test of toolic's code, then next you'd best tell us about any and ALL untoward outputs.

      Better yet, you might want to walk thru your/toolic's code with the debugger and tell us what that discloses.


      If you didn't program your executable by toggling in binary, it wasn't really programming!

[reply]
      It should be something simple. Try this for the SPECIAL section: 
      #!/usr/bin/perl

BEGIN {
    $|  = 1;
    $^W = 1;
}

use strict;
use warnings;
use Pod::Usage;
use Getopt::Long;

my $help = 0;

pod2usage(2) unless GetOptions('help|?' => \$help);

my $verbose      = 99;
my $message_text = "special usage stuff here...\n";
my $sections     = 'SPECIAL';

pod2usage(
    -verbose  => $verbose,
    -message  => $message_text,
    -sections => $sections,
); 

__END__

=head1 SYNOPSIS
    
    here's the main usage stuff

=head1 SPECIAL
    
    special usage stuff here...

=cut

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