Net::SMTP(3p) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Net::SMTP(3p)NAMENet::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");
$smtp->dataend();
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$smtp->quit;
CONSTRUCTOR
new ( [ HOST ] [, OPTIONS ] )
This is the constructor for a new Net::SMTP object.
"HOST" is the name of the remote host to which an SMTP
connection is required.
"HOST" is optional. If "HOST" is not given then it may
instead be passed as the "Host" option described below.
If neither is given then the "SMTP_Hosts" 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 localhost.localdomain will be used.
Host - SMTP 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.
LocalAddr and LocalPort - These parameters are passed
directly to IO::Socket to allow binding the socket to a
local port.
Timeout - Maximum time, in seconds, to wait for a
response from the SMTP server (default: 120)
ExactAddresses - If true the all ADDRESS arguments must
be as defined by "addr-spec" in RFC2822. If not given,
or false, then Net::SMTP will attempt to extract the
address from the value passed.
Debug - Enable debugging information
Example:
$smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost',
Hello => 'my.mail.domain'
Timeout => 30,
Debug => 1,
);
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# the same
$smtp = Net::SMTP->new(
Host => 'mailhost',
Hello => 'my.mail.domain'
Timeout => 30,
Debug => 1,
);
# Connect to the default server from Net::config
$smtp = Net::SMTP->new(
Hello => 'my.mail.domain'
Timeout => 30,
);
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
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 identi-
fied 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.
host ()
Returns the value used by the constructor, and passed to
IO::Socket::INET, to connect to the host.
etrn ( DOMAIN )
Request a queue run for the DOMAIN given.
auth ( USERNAME, PASSWORD )
Attempt SASL authentication.
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
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"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 => "FULL" | "HDRS"
Bits => "7" | "8" | "binary"
Transaction => <ADDRESS>
Envelope => <ENVID>
XVERP => 1
The "Return" and "Envelope" parameters are used for DSN
(Delivery Status Notification).
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 also pass additional case-
sensitive OPTIONS as an anonymous hash using key and
value pairs. Possible options are:
Notify => ['NEVER'] or ['SUCCESS','FAILURE','DELAY'] (see below)
SkipBad => 1 (to 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.
$smtp->recipient($recipient1,$recipient2); # Good
$smtp->recipient($recipient1,$recipient2, { SkipBad => 1 }); # Good
$smtp->recipient($recipient1,$recipient2, { Notify => ['FAILURE','DELAY'], SkipBad => 1 }); # Good
@goodrecips=$smtp->recipient(@recipients, { Notify => ['FAILURE'], SkipBad => 1 }); # Good
$smtp->recipient("$recipient,$recipient2"); # BAD
Notify is used to request Delivery Status Notifications
(DSNs), but your SMTP/ESMTP service may not respect this
request depending upon its version and your site's SMTP
configuration.
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Leaving out the Notify option usually defaults an SMTP
service to its default behavior equivalent to
['FAILURE'] notifications only, but again this may be
dependent upon your site's SMTP configuration.
The NEVER keyword must appear by itself if used within
the Notify option and "requests that a DSN not be
returned to the sender under any conditions."
{Notify => ['NEVER']}
$smtp->recipient(@recipients, { Notify => ['NEVER'], SkipBad => 1 }); # Good
You may use any combination of these three values
'SUCCESS','FAILURE','DELAY' in the anonymous array
reference as defined by RFC3461 (see
http://rfc.net/rfc3461.html for more information. Note:
quotations in this topic from same.).
A Notify parameter of 'SUCCESS' or 'FAILURE' "requests
that a DSN be issued on successful delivery or delivery
failure, respectively."
A Notify parameter of 'DELAY' "indicates the sender's
willingness to receive delayed DSNs. Delayed DSNs may
be issued if delivery of a message has been delayed for
an unusual amount of time (as determined by the Message
Transfer Agent (MTA) at which the message is delayed),
but the final delivery status (whether successful or
failure) cannot be determined. The absence of the DELAY
keyword in a NOTIFY parameter requests that a "delayed"
DSN NOT be issued under any conditions."
{Notify => ['SUCCESS','FAILURE','DELAY']}
$smtp->recipient(@recipients, { Notify => ['FAILURE','DELAY'], SkipBad => 1 }); # Good
to ( ADDRESS [, ADDRESS [...]] )
cc ( ADDRESS [, ADDRESS [...]] )
bcc ( ADDRESS [, ADDRESS [...]] )
Synonyms for "recipient".
data ( [ DATA ] )
Initiate the sending of the data from the current mes-
sage.
"DATA" may be a reference to a list or a list. If speci-
fied 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
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that the server wishes the data to be sent. The data
must then be sent using the "datasend" and "dataend"
methods described in Net::Cmd.
expand ( ADDRESS )
Request the server to expand the given address Returns
an array which contains the text read from the server.
verify ( ADDRESS )
Verify that "ADDRESS" is a legitimate mailing address.
Most sites usually disable this feature in their SMTP
service configuration. Use "Debug => 1" option under
new() to see if disabled.
help ( [ $subject ] )
Request help text from the server. Returns the text or
undef upon failure
quit ()
Send the QUIT command to the remote SMTP server and
close the socket connection.
ADDRESSESNet::SMTP attempts to DWIM with addresses that are passed.
For example an application might extract The From: line from
an email and pass that to mail(). While this may work, it is
not reccomended. The application should really use a module
like Mail::Address to extract the mail address and pass
that.
If "ExactAddresses" is passed to the contructor, then
addresses should be a valid rfc2821-quoted address, although
Net::SMTP will accept accept the address surrounded by angle
brackets.
funny user@domain WRONG
"funny user"@domain RIGHT, recommended
<"funny user"@domain> OK
SEE ALSO
Net::Cmd
AUTHOR
Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1995-2004 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.
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