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Net::NNTP(3)
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 the "Host" option described below. If no host
is passed then two environment variables are checked, first
"NNTPSERVER" then "NEWSHOST", then "Net::Config" is checked, and if a
host is not found then "news" 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 a "MODE READER" command
so that the remote server becomes innd. If the "Reader" 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. If "FH" is not specified then the return value, on success,
will be a reference to an array containg 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 the "MSGID" from a list provided by the
"newnews" 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 the "article" command except that
no text is returned. When selecting by message number within a group,
the "nntpstat" 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 is "MSGID". If the server desires a copy of that article, and
"MESSAGE" 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 the
"datasend" and "dataend" methods from Net::Cmd
"MESSAGE" 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 and "DISTRIBUTIONS" is either a distribution
pattern or a reference to a list of distribution patterns. The result
is the same as "list", but the groups return will be limited to those
created after "SINCE" and, if specified, in one of the distribution
areas in "DISTRIBUTIONS".
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 matched "GROUPS"
and a distribution which matches "DISTRIBUTIONS".
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 the
"datasend" and "dataend" methods from Net::Cmd
"MESSAGE" can be either an array of lines or a reference to an array.
The message, either sent via "datasend" or as the "MESSAGE" 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 matches "PATTERN"
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 if "GROUP" 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 the "WILDMAT" 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
Net::Cmd
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.
$Id: //depot/libnet/Net/NNTP.pm#18 $
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