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 ( [ 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
Port - Select a port on the remote host to connect to (default is
25)
Example:
$smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost',
Hello => 'my.mail.domain',
Timeout => 30,
Debug => 1,
);
# 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 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.
- 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 "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> # xtext-encodes its argument
ENVID => <ENVID> # similar to Envelope, but expects argument encoded
XVERP => 1
AUTH => <submitter> # encoded address according to RFC 2554
The "Return" and "Envelope" parameters are used for DSN
(Delivery Status Notification).
The submitter address in "AUTH" option is expected to be in a
format as required by RFC 2554, in an RFC2821-quoted form and
xtext-encoded, or <> .
- 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)
ORcpt => <ORCPT>
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.
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
ORcpt is also part of the SMTP DSN extension according to RFC3461. It is
used to pass along the original recipient that the mail was first sent to.
The machine that generates a DSN will use this address to inform the
sender, because he can't know if recipients get rewritten by mail servers.
It is expected to be in a format as required by RFC3461,
xtext-encoded.
- 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.
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.
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 recommended. The application
should really use a module like Mail::Address to extract the mail address and
pass that.
If "ExactAddresses" is passed to the constructor, 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.