MirBSD manpage: Net::NNTP(3p)


Net::NNTP(3p)   Perl Programmers Reference Guide    Net::NNTP(3p)

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 com-
     munication 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 suc-
     cess. When a method states that it returns a value, failure

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     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 suc-
         cess 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" com-
         mand 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".

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         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 contain-
         ing, 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 "MES-
         SAGE" 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 arti-
         cle 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 valu-
         able passwords unless the connection to the server is
         somehow protected.

     list ()

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         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 distri-
         bution 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 pat-
         tern or a reference to a list of group patterns. "DIS-
         TRIBUTIONS" is either a distribution pattern or a refer-
         ence 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 "MES-
         SAGE" 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

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         return a tied filehandle that you can print() the con-
         tents 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 dis-
         tribution 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 iden-
         tifier, 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.

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     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 per-
         mission your connection will be connected to the
         transfer daemon, not the NNTP daemon. Issuing this com-
         mand 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.

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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 mes-
         sage 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 ver-
         sions 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 pat-
         terns. 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 charac-
         ters.

         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

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         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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