UKLINUX NET Support - Sending email from your perl scripts

Services
Sign Up
Upgrade
My Account
Status
Support
Domain Reg.
Colocation

PCs & Software
Buy Linux PCs & Software

Information
Campaigns
Community
Hot Shops
LUGs
News
Whois

Today is Tue 06 Jan, 2009

Net::SMTP

Section: User Contributed Perl Documentation (3)
Updated: perl v5.6.0
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

Net::SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Client

SYNOPSIS

    use Net::SMTP;

    # Constructors
    $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost');
    $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost', Timeout => 60);

DESCRIPTION

This module implements a client interface to the SMTP and ESMTP protocol, enabling a perl5 application to talk to SMTP servers. This documentation assumes that you are familiar with the concepts of the SMTP protocol described in RFC821.

A new Net::SMTP object must be created with the new method. Once this has been done, all SMTP commands are accessed through this object.

The Net::SMTP class is a subclass of Net::Cmd and IO::Socket::INET.

EXAMPLES

This example prints the mail domain name of the SMTP server known as mailhost:

    #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

    use Net::SMTP;

    $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost');
    print $smtp->domain,"\n";
    $smtp->quit;

This example sends a small message to the postmaster at the SMTP server known as mailhost:

    #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

    use Net::SMTP;

    $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost');

    $smtp->mail($ENV{USER});
    $smtp->to('postmaster');

    $smtp->data();
    $smtp->datasend("To: postmaster\n");
    $smtp->datasend("\n");
    $smtp->datasend("A simple test message\n");
    $smtp->dataend();

    $smtp->quit;

CONSTRUCTOR

new Net::SMTP [ HOST, ] [ OPTIONS ]

This is the constructor for a new Net::SMTP object. `HOST' is the name of the remote host to which a SMTP connection is required.

If `HOST' is not given, then the `SMTP_Host' specified in `Net::Config' will be used.

`OPTIONS' are passed in a hash like fashion, using key and value pairs. Possible options are:

Hello - SMTP requires that you identify yourself. This option specifies a string to pass as your mail domain. If not given a guess will be taken.

Timeout - Maximum time, in seconds, to wait for a response from the SMTP server (default: 120)

Debug - Enable debugging information

Example:

    $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost',
                           Hello => 'my.mail.domain'
                           Timeout => 30,
                           Debug   => 1,
                          );

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.

banner ()

Returns the banner message which the server replied with when the initial connection was made.

domain ()

Returns the domain that the remote SMTP server identified itself as during connection.

hello ( DOMAIN )

Tell the remote server the mail domain which you are in using the EHLO command (or HELO if EHLO fails). Since this method is invoked automatically when the Net::SMTP object is constructed the user should normally not have to call it manually.

etrn ( DOMAIN )

Request a queue run for the DOMAIN given.

mail ( ADDRESS [, OPTIONS] )

send ( ADDRESS )

send_or_mail ( ADDRESS )

send_and_mail ( ADDRESS )

Send the appropriate command to the server MAIL, SEND, SOML or SAML. `ADDRESS' is the address of the sender. This initiates the sending of a message. The method `recipient' should be called for each address that the message is to be sent to.

The `mail' method can some additional ESMTP OPTIONS which is passed in hash like fashion, using key and value pairs. Possible options are:

 Size        => <bytes>
 Return      => <???>
 Bits        => "7" | "8"
 Transaction => <ADDRESS>
 Envelope    => <ENVID>

reset ()

Reset the status of the server. This may be called after a message has been initiated, but before any data has been sent, to cancel the sending of the message.

recipient ( ADDRESS [, ADDRESS [ ...]] [, OPTIONS ] )

Notify the server that the current message should be sent to all of the addresses given. Each address is sent as a separate command to the server. Should the sending of any address result in a failure then the process is aborted and a false value is returned. It is up to the user to call `reset' if they so desire.

The `recipient' method can some additional OPTIONS which is passed in hash like fashion, using key and value pairs. Possible options are:

 Notify    =>
 SkipBad   => ignore bad addresses

If `SkipBad' is true the `recipient' will not return an error when a bad address is encountered and it will return an array of addresses that did succeed.

to ( ADDRESS [, ADDRESS [...]] )

A synonym for `recipient'.

data ( [ DATA ] )

Initiate the sending of the data from the current message.

`DATA' may be a reference to a list or a list. If specified the contents of `DATA' and a termination string `".\r\n"' is sent to the server. And the result will be true if the data was accepted.

If `DATA' is not specified then the result will indicate that the server wishes the data to be sent. The data must then be sent using the `datasend' and `dataend' methods described in the Net::Cmd manpage.

expand ( ADDRESS )