Article 11561 of comp.lang.perl:
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From: mdimeo@btree.brooktree.com (Matthew DiMeo)
Subject: Re: perlman revisited.
Message-ID: <1994Mar15.232942.20663@btree.brooktree.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 23:29:42 GMT
References: <CMnqJ1.79I@euu.siemens-albis.ch> <2m212l$7fm@lace.Colorado.EDU> <CMp284.GGH@euu.siemens-albis.ch>
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organi[sz]ation
Lines: 71

In article <CMp284.GGH@euu.siemens-albis.ch>,
Jon Connell <jco@euu.siemens-albis.ch> wrote:
>
>No, it was somebody elses mini-script which piped the man-page output
>looking for the function a certain no. of spaces into the line.
>

I missed the beginning of the thread, but I'm guessing you're talking about
my script.  Here it is again, for those who missed it.  Run it like this:

% pfunk push

and you'll get this:

     push(ARRAY,LIST)
             Treats ARRAY (@ is optional) as a stack, and  pushes
             the  values  of  LIST  onto  the  end of ARRAY.  The
             length of ARRAY increases by  the  length  of  LIST.
             Has the same effect as
 
                 for $value (LIST) {
                      $ARRAY[++$#ARRAY] = $value;
                 }
 
             but is more efficient.

--------------------- cut --------------------
#!/usr/local/bin/perl

# pfunk.  Written by Matthew DiMeo, mdimeo@brooktree.com.  Distribute
# freely, but give credit where credit is due, and blame to somebody else :-).


# look up a function in the perl man page.

$func = shift || die "Usage: $0 funcname\n" ;

$func = "m/PATTERN/gio" if $func eq "m/PATTERN/" || 
			   $func eq "/PATTERN/" ||
			   $func eq "//" ;

$func = "s/PATTERN/REPLACEMENT/gieo" if $func eq "s/" || $func eq "s///" ;

open(MAN, "man perl|") ;

$/ = "\n\n" ;

while(<MAN>) {
    if (/^     $func/o) {
	print ;
	$/ = "\n" ;
	while (<MAN>) {
	    if (! /^     /) {
		print "\n" ;
		DONOTHING while ($_ = <MAN>) !~ /^     / ;
	    }
	    last if /^     \S/ && !/^     $func/o ;
	    print ;
	}
	exit(0) ;
    }
}

die "Not found!\n" ;
__END__

If somebody wants to put this on an archive site, go right ahead (let me
know, so I can tell my Mom :-).  

-Matt DiMeo
mdimeo@brooktree.com