Apparently, there are still chances we have to deal with buggy pod2man versions.

Deal with that by testing any available pod2man and using it if appropriate,
and falling back to util/pod2man.pl if none was found.

Makefile.org

@@ -733,8 +733,9 @@ install_docs:
 		if [ "$$fn" = "config" ]; then sec=5; else sec=1; fi; \
 		echo "installing man$$sec/`basename $$i .pod`.$$sec"; \
 		(cd `dirname $$i`; \
-		pod2man --section=$$sec --center=OpenSSL \
-			--release=$(VERSION) `basename $$i`) \
+		sh -c "`cd ../../util; ./pod2mantest ignore` \
+			--section=$$sec --center=OpenSSL \
+			--release=$(VERSION) `basename $$i`") \
 			>  $(INSTALL_PREFIX)$(MANDIR)/man$$sec/`basename $$i .pod`.$$sec; \
 	done
 	@for i in doc/crypto/*.pod doc/ssl/*.pod; do \
@@ -742,8 +743,9 @@ install_docs:
 		if [ "$$fn" = "des_modes" ]; then sec=7; else sec=3; fi; \
 		echo "installing man$$sec/`basename $$i .pod`.$$sec"; \
 		(cd `dirname $$i`; \
-		pod2man --section=$$sec --center=OpenSSL \
-			--release=$(VERSION) `basename $$i`) \
+		sh -c "`cd ../../util; ./pod2mantest ignore` \
+			--section=$$sec --center=OpenSSL \
+			--release=$(VERSION) `basename $$i`") \
 			>  $(INSTALL_PREFIX)$(MANDIR)/man$$sec/`basename $$i .pod`.$$sec; \
 	done
 

util/pod2mantest

+#!/bin/sh
+
+# This script is used by test/Makefile.ssl to check whether a sane 'pod2man'
+# is installed.
+# ('make install' should not try to run 'pod2man' if it does not exist or if
+# it is a broken 'pod2man' version that is known to cause trouble. if we find
+# the system 'pod2man' to be broken, we use our own copy instead)
+#
+# In any case, output an appropriate command line for running (or not
+# running) pod2man.
+
+
+IFS=:
+try_without_dir=true
+# First we try "pod2man", then "$dir/pod2man" for each item in $PATH.
+for dir in dummy:$PATH; do
+    if [ "$try_without_dir" = true ]; then
+      # first iteration
+      pod2man=pod2man
+      try_without_dir=false
+    else
+      # second and later iterations
+      pod2man="$dir/pod2man"
+      if [ ! -f "$pod2man" ]; then  # '-x' is not available on Ultrix
+        pod2man=''
+      fi
+    fi
+
+    if [ ! "$pod2man" = '' ]; then
+        failure=none
+
+
+	if "$pod2man" --section=1 --center=OpenSSL --release=dev pod2mantest.pod | grep '^MARKER - ' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+	    failure=MultilineTest
+	fi
+
+
+        if [ "$failure" = none ]; then
+            echo "$pod2man"
+            exit 0
+        fi
+
+        echo "$pod2man does not work properly ('$failure' failed).  Looking for another pod2man ..." >&2
+    fi
+done
+
+echo "No working pod2man found.  Consider installing a new version." >&2
+if [ "$1" = ignore ]; then
+  echo "As a workaround, we'll use a bundled old copy of pod2man.pl." >&2
+  echo "util/pod2man.pl"
+  exit 0
+fi
+exit 1

util/pod2mantest.pod

+=pod
+
+=head1 NAME
+
+foo, bar,
+MARKER - test of multiline name section
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+This is a test .pod file to see if we have a buggy pod2man or not.
+If we have a buggy implementation, we will get a line matching the
+regular expression "^ +MARKER - test of multiline name section *$"
+at the end of the resulting document.
+
+=cut