NAME
Net::NNTP - NNTP Client class
SYNOPSIS
use Net::NNTP;
$nntp = Net::NNTP->new("some.host.name"); $nntp->quit;
DESCRIPTION
Net::NNTP
is a class implementing a simple NNTP client in Perl as described
in RFC977. Net::NNTP
inherits its communication methods from Net::Cmd
CONSTRUCTOR
- new ( [ HOST ] [, OPTIONS ])
This is the constructor for a new Net::NNTP object.
HOST
is the name of the remote host to which a NNTP connection is required. If not given then it may be passed as theHost
option described below. If no host is passed then two environment variables are checked, firstNNTPSERVER
thenNEWSHOST
, thenNet::Config
is checked, and if a host is not found thennews
is used.OPTIONS
are passed in a hash like fashion, using key and value pairs. Possible options are:Host - NNTP host to connect to. It may be a single scalar, as defined for the
PeerAddr
option in IO::Socket::INET, or a reference to an array with hosts to try in turn. The "host" method will return the value which was used to connect to the host.Timeout - Maximum time, in seconds, to wait for a response from the NNTP server, a value of zero will cause all IO operations to block. (default: 120)
Debug - Enable the printing of debugging information to STDERR
Reader - If the remote server is INN then initially the connection will be to nnrpd, by default
Net::NNTP
will issue aMODE READER
command so that the remote server becomes innd. If theReader
option is given with a value of zero, then this command will not be sent and the connection will be left talking to nnrpd.
METHODS
Unless otherwise stated all methods return either a true or false value, with true meaning that the operation was a success. When a method states that it returns a value, failure will be returned as undef or an empty list.
- article ( [ MSGID|MSGNUM ], [FH] )
Retrieve the header, a blank line, then the body (text) of the specified article.
If
FH
is specified then it is expected to be a valid filehandle and the result will be printed to it, on success a true value will be returned. IfFH
is not specified then the return value, on success, will be a reference to an array containing the article requested, each entry in the array will contain one line of the article.If no arguments are passed then the current article in the currently selected newsgroup is fetched.
MSGNUM
is a numeric id of an article in the current newsgroup, and will change the current article pointer.MSGID
is the message id of an article as shown in that article's header. It is anticipated that the client will obtain theMSGID
from a list provided by thenewnews
command, from references contained within another article, or from the message-id provided in the response to some other commands.If there is an error then
undef
will be returned. - body ( [ MSGID|MSGNUM ], [FH] )
Like
article
but only fetches the body of the article. - head ( [ MSGID|MSGNUM ], [FH] )
Like
article
but only fetches the headers for the article. - articlefh ( [ MSGID|MSGNUM ] )
- bodyfh ( [ MSGID|MSGNUM ] )
- headfh ( [ MSGID|MSGNUM ] )
These are similar to article(), body() and head(), but rather than returning the requested data directly, they return a tied filehandle from which to read the article.
- nntpstat ( [ MSGID|MSGNUM ] )
The
nntpstat
command is similar to thearticle
command except that no text is returned. When selecting by message number within a group, thenntpstat
command serves to set the "current article pointer" without sending text.Using the
nntpstat
command to select by message-id is valid but of questionable value, since a selection by message-id does not alter the "current article pointer".Returns the message-id of the "current article".
- group ( [ GROUP ] )
Set and/or get the current group. If
GROUP
is not given then information is returned on the current group.In a scalar context it returns the group name.
In an array context the return value is a list containing, the number of articles in the group, the number of the first article, the number of the last article and the group name.
- ihave ( MSGID [, MESSAGE ])
The
ihave
command informs the server that the client has an article whose id isMSGID
. If the server desires a copy of that article, andMESSAGE
has been given the it will be sent.Returns true if the server desires the article and
MESSAGE
was successfully sent,if specified.If
MESSAGE
is not specified then the message must be sent using thedatasend
anddataend
methods from Net::CmdMESSAGE
can be either an array of lines or a reference to an array. - last ()
Set the "current article pointer" to the previous article in the current newsgroup.
Returns the message-id of the article.
- date ()
Returns the date on the remote server. This date will be in a UNIX time format (seconds since 1970)
- postok ()
postok
will return true if the servers initial response indicated that it will allow posting. - authinfo ( USER, PASS )
Authenticates to the server (using AUTHINFO USER / AUTHINFO PASS) using the supplied username and password. Please note that the password is sent in clear text to the server. This command should not be used with valuable passwords unless the connection to the server is somehow protected.
- list ()
Obtain information about all the active newsgroups. The results is a reference to a hash where the key is a group name and each value is a reference to an array. The elements in this array are:- the last article number in the group, the first article number in the group and any information flags about the group.
- newgroups ( SINCE [, DISTRIBUTIONS ])
SINCE
is a time value andDISTRIBUTIONS
is either a distribution pattern or a reference to a list of distribution patterns. The result is the same aslist
, but the groups return will be limited to those created afterSINCE
and, if specified, in one of the distribution areas inDISTRIBUTIONS
. - newnews ( SINCE [, GROUPS [, DISTRIBUTIONS ]])
SINCE
is a time value.GROUPS
is either a group pattern or a reference to a list of group patterns.DISTRIBUTIONS
is either a distribution pattern or a reference to a list of distribution patterns.Returns a reference to a list which contains the message-ids of all news posted after
SINCE
, that are in a groups which matchedGROUPS
and a distribution which matchesDISTRIBUTIONS
. - next ()
Set the "current article pointer" to the next article in the current newsgroup.
Returns the message-id of the article.
- post ( [ MESSAGE ] )
Post a new article to the news server. If
MESSAGE
is specified and posting is allowed then the message will be sent.If
MESSAGE
is not specified then the message must be sent using thedatasend
anddataend
methods from Net::CmdMESSAGE
can be either an array of lines or a reference to an array.The message, either sent via
datasend
or as theMESSAGE
parameter, must be in the format as described by RFC822 and must contain From:, Newsgroups: and Subject: headers. - postfh ()
Post a new article to the news server using a tied filehandle. If posting is allowed, this method will return a tied filehandle that you can print() the contents of the article to be posted. You must explicitly close() the filehandle when you are finished posting the article, and the return value from the close() call will indicate whether the message was successfully posted.
- slave ()
Tell the remote server that I am not a user client, but probably another news server.
- quit ()
Quit the remote server and close the socket connection.
Extension methods
These methods use commands that are not part of the RFC977 documentation. Some servers may not support all of them.
- newsgroups ( [ PATTERN ] )
Returns a reference to a hash where the keys are all the group names which match
PATTERN
, or all of the groups if no pattern is specified, and each value contains the description text for the group. - distributions ()
Returns a reference to a hash where the keys are all the possible distribution names and the values are the distribution descriptions.
- subscriptions ()
Returns a reference to a list which contains a list of groups which are recommended for a new user to subscribe to.
- overview_fmt ()
Returns a reference to an array which contain the names of the fields returned by
xover
. - active_times ()
Returns a reference to a hash where the keys are the group names and each value is a reference to an array containing the time the groups was created and an identifier, possibly an Email address, of the creator.
- active ( [ PATTERN ] )
Similar to
list
but only active groups that match the pattern are returned.PATTERN
can be a group pattern. - xgtitle ( PATTERN )
Returns a reference to a hash where the keys are all the group names which match
PATTERN
and each value is the description text for the group. - xhdr ( HEADER, MESSAGE-SPEC )
Obtain the header field
HEADER
for all the messages specified.The return value will be a reference to a hash where the keys are the message numbers and each value contains the text of the requested header for that message.
- xover ( MESSAGE-SPEC )
The return value will be a reference to a hash where the keys are the message numbers and each value contains a reference to an array which contains the overview fields for that message.
The names of the fields can be obtained by calling
overview_fmt
. - xpath ( MESSAGE-ID )
Returns the path name to the file on the server which contains the specified message.
- xpat ( HEADER, PATTERN, MESSAGE-SPEC)
The result is the same as
xhdr
except the is will be restricted to headers where the text of the header matchesPATTERN
- xrover
The XROVER command returns reference information for the article(s) specified.
Returns a reference to a HASH where the keys are the message numbers and the values are the References: lines from the articles
- listgroup ( [ GROUP ] )
Returns a reference to a list of all the active messages in
GROUP
, or the current group ifGROUP
is not specified. - reader
Tell the server that you are a reader and not another server.
This is required by some servers. For example if you are connecting to an INN server and you have transfer permission your connection will be connected to the transfer daemon, not the NNTP daemon. Issuing this command will cause the transfer daemon to hand over control to the NNTP daemon.
Some servers do not understand this command, but issuing it and ignoring the response is harmless.
UNSUPPORTED
The following NNTP command are unsupported by the package, and there are no plans to do so.
AUTHINFO GENERIC XTHREAD XSEARCH XINDEX
DEFINITIONS
- MESSAGE-SPEC
MESSAGE-SPEC
is either a single message-id, a single message number, or a reference to a list of two message numbers.If
MESSAGE-SPEC
is a reference to a list of two message numbers and the second number in a range is less than or equal to the first then the range represents all messages in the group after the first message number.NOTE For compatibility reasons only with earlier versions of Net::NNTP a message spec can be passed as a list of two numbers, this is deprecated and a reference to the list should now be passed
- PATTERN
The
NNTP
protocol uses theWILDMAT
format for patterns. The WILDMAT format was first developed by Rich Salz based on the format used in the UNIX "find" command to articulate file names. It was developed to provide a uniform mechanism for matching patterns in the same manner that the UNIX shell matches filenames.Patterns are implicitly anchored at the beginning and end of each string when testing for a match.
There are five pattern matching operations other than a strict one-to-one match between the pattern and the source to be checked for a match.
The first is an asterisk
*
to match any sequence of zero or more characters.The second is a question mark
?
to match any single character. The third specifies a specific set of characters.The set is specified as a list of characters, or as a range of characters where the beginning and end of the range are separated by a minus (or dash) character, or as any combination of lists and ranges. The dash can also be included in the set as a character it if is the beginning or end of the set. This set is enclosed in square brackets. The close square bracket
]
may be used in a set if it is the first character in the set.The fourth operation is the same as the logical not of the third operation and is specified the same way as the third with the addition of a caret character
^
at the beginning of the test string just inside the open square bracket.The final operation uses the backslash character to invalidate the special meaning of an open square bracket
[
, the asterisk, backslash or the question mark. Two backslashes in sequence will result in the evaluation of the backslash as a character with no special meaning.- Examples
[^]-]
matches any single character other than a close square bracket or a minus sign/dash.
*bdc
matches any string that ends with the string "bdc" including the string "bdc" (without quotes).
[0-9a-zA-Z]
matches any single printable alphanumeric ASCII character.
a??d
matches any four character string which begins with a and ends with d.
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1995-1997 Graham Barr. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.