Net::SMTP(3)

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 an SMTP connection is required.

    If "HOST" is an array reference then each value will be attempted in turn until a connection is made.

    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.

    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,
                              );

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.

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 "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>

    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 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.

      $smtp->recipient($recipient1,$recipient2);  # Good
      $smtp->recipient($recipient1,$recipient2, { SkipBad => 1 });  # Good
      $smtp->recipient("$recipient,$recipient2"); # BAD

to ( ADDRESS [, ADDRESS [...]] )
cc ( ADDRESS [, ADDRESS [...]] )
bcc ( ADDRESS [, ADDRESS [...]] )
    Synonyms 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 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.

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.

ADDRESSES
Net::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) 1995-1997 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/SMTP.pm#31 $