This policy is part of the "Perl::Critic::Pulp" add-on. It requires that you put an "__END__" before POD
which is at the end of a file. For example,
program_code();
1;
__END__ # good
=head1 NAME
...
and not merely
program_code();
1; # bad
=head1 NAME
...
This is primarily a matter of personal preference, so the policy is low severity and only under the
"cosmetic" theme (see "POLICY THEMES" in Perl::Critic). An "__END__" like this has no effect on
execution, but it's a fairly common convention since it's a good human indication you mean the code to
end there, and it stops Perl parsing through the POD which may save a few nanoseconds.
This policy is looser than "Documentation::RequirePodAtEnd". This policy allows POD to be anywhere in
among the code, the requirement is only that if the file ends with POD then you should have an "__END__"
between the last code and last POD.
A file of all POD, or all code, or which ends with code, is ok. Ending with code is usual if you write
your POD at the start of the file or in among the functions etc,
=pod
And that's all.
=cut
cleanup ();
exit 0; # good
A file using "__DATA__" is always ok, since you can't have "__END__" followed by "__DATA__", wherever you
want your POD. If the "__DATA__" is in fact "SelfLoader" code then it can helpfully have an "__END__"
within it, but as of "perlcritic" version 1.092 no checks at all are applied to SelfLoader sections.
Disabling
As always if you don't care about "__END__" you can disable "RequireEndBeforeLastPod" from your
.perlcriticrc in the usual way (see "CONFIGURATION" in Perl::Critic),
[-Documentation::RequireEndBeforeLastPod]