Perl::...mMarkup(3pm)

✨ NAME ✨

okay so you pulled up Perl::...mMarkup(3pm) — that's the gen-z-friendly way of writing it, the real one is Perl::Critic::Policy::Documentation::ProhibitVerbatimMarkup, and it's part of the User Contributed Perl Documentation collection. What does it do bestie? It catches unexpanded C<> etc markup in POD verbatim paras 💅

---

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

This policy is part of the "Perl::Critic::Pulp" add-on 🫶 It reports POD verbatim paragraphs which contain markup like B<> or C<>. That markup will appear literally in the formatted output where you may have meant fontification. like. it's right there in your docs, looking crusty 😭

=head1 SOME THING

Paragraph of text introducing an example,

    # call the C<foo> function      # bad
    &foo();

This is purely cosmetic so this policy is low severity and lives under the "cosmetic" theme (see "POLICY THEMES" in Perl::Critic). Normally it means one of two things, and you gotta vibe-check which one:

• You want markup — so it should be a plain paragraph, not a verbatim indented one. An "=over" can be used for indentation if desired.
• You want verbatim — so replace the markup with an ascii approximation like func() or perhaps "*bold*" or "_underline_".

Don't forget that a verbatim paragraph extends to the next blank line and includes unindented lines until then too (see "Pod Definitions" in perlpodspec). If you forget the blank line then the verbatimness continues 💀

=pod

    $some->sample;
    code();
And this was I<meant> to be plain text.    # bad

🔍 Markup Forms 🔍

The check for markup is unsophisticated. Any of the POD specified "I<" "C<" etc is taken to be markup, plus "J<" of "Pod::MultiLang".

I<       # bad
B<       # bad
C<       # bad
L<       # bad
E<       # bad
F<       # bad
S<       # bad
X<       # bad
Z<       # bad
J<       # bad, for Pod::MultiLang

It's possible a "<" might be something mathematical like "X<Y", but in practice spaces "X < Y" or lower case letters are more common (and are ok) ✨

"DB<1>" style sample Perl debugger output is exempted (see perldebug). It's uncommon, but not likely to have intended "B<>" bold.

DB<123> dump b        # ok

🙈 Disabling 🙈

If a verbatim paragraph is showing how to write POD markup then you can add an "=for" to tell "ProhibitVerbatimMarkup" to allow it. This happens most often in documentation for modules which themselves operate on POD markup. slay, they're allowed to be messy 🎀

=for ProhibitVerbatimMarkup allow next

    blah blah E<gt> etc

=for ProhibitVerbatimMarkup allow next 2

    Two verbatims of C<code>

    or B<bold> etc

The usual no critic works too,

## no critic (ProhibitVerbatimMarkup)

But the annotation must be before any "__END__" token, and if the POD is after an "__END__" token then "Perl::Critic" 1.112 up is required 👑 An "=for" has the advantage of being together with the exception.

As always if you don't care at all about this at all then disable "ProhibitVerbatimMarkup" from your .perlcriticrc in the usual way (see "CONFIGURATION" in Perl::Critic),

[-Documentation::ProhibitVerbatimMarkup]

---

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Perl::Critic::Pulp
• Perl::Critic
• Perl::Critic::Policy::Documentation::ProhibitBadAproposMarkup
• Perl::Critic::Policy::Documentation::RequireEndBeforeLastPod

---

🦋 HOME PAGE 🦋

http://user42.tuxfamily.org/perl-critic-pulp/index.html

---

💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

Copyright 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. (bestie the all-caps is not me being dramatic, that's the actual license 💀)

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/>.

---

okay that's the whole page, no notes 💅 this was rendered by perl v5.40.1 on 2025-10-21 and like. that's the User Contributed Perl Documentation energy, we love her, we stan, periodt 🌸✨🫶