


Net::POP3(3p)    Perl Programmers Reference Guide   Net::POP3(3p)


NAME
       Net::POP3 - Post Office Protocol 3 Client class (RFC1939)

SYNOPSIS
           use Net::POP3;

           # Constructors
           $pop = Net::POP3->new('pop3host');
           $pop = Net::POP3->new('pop3host', Timeout => 60);

           if ($pop->login($username, $password) > 0) {
             my $msgnums = $pop->list; # hashref of msgnum => size
             foreach my $msgnum (keys %$msgnums) {
               my $msg = $pop->get($msgnum);
               print @$msg;
               $pop->delete($msgnum);
             }
           }

           $pop->quit;

DESCRIPTION
       This module implements a client interface to the POP3
       protocol, enabling a perl5 application to talk to POP3
       servers. This documentation assumes that you are familiar
       with the POP3 protocol described in RFC1939.

       A new Net::POP3 object must be created with the new
       method. Once this has been done, all POP3 commands are
       accessed via method calls on the object.

CONSTRUCTOR
       new ( [ HOST ] [, OPTIONS ] 0
           This is the constructor for a new Net::POP3 object.
           "HOST" is the name of the remote host to which an POP3
           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 "POP3_Hosts"
           specified in "Net::Config" will be used.

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

           Host - POP3 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.

           ResvPort - If given then the socket for the
           "Net::POP3" object will be bound to the local port
           given using "bind" when the socket is created.



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Net::POP3(3p)    Perl Programmers Reference Guide   Net::POP3(3p)


           Timeout - Maximum time, in seconds, to wait for a
           response from the POP3 server (default: 120)

           Debug - Enable debugging information

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.

       auth ( USERNAME, PASSWORD )
           Attempt SASL authentication.

       user ( USER )
           Send the USER command.

       pass ( PASS )
           Send the PASS command. Returns the number of messages
           in the mailbox.

       login ( [ USER [, PASS ]] )
           Send both the USER and PASS commands. If "PASS" is not
           given the "Net::POP3" uses "Net::Netrc" to lookup the
           password using the host and username. If the username
           is not specified then the current user name will be
           used.

           Returns the number of messages in the mailbox. However
           if there are no messages on the server the string
           "0E0" will be returned. This is will give a true value
           in a boolean context, but zero in a numeric context.

           If there was an error authenticating the user then
           undef will be returned.

       apop ( [ USER [, PASS ]] )
           Authenticate with the server identifying as "USER"
           with password "PASS".  Similar to "login", but the
           password is not sent in clear text.

           To use this method you must have the Digest::MD5 or
           the MD5 module installed, otherwise this method will
           return undef.

       banner ()
           Return the sever's connection banner

       capa ()
           Return a reference to a hash of the capabilities of
           the server.  APOP is added as a pseudo capability.
           Note that I've been unable to find a list of the
           standard capability values, and some appear to be
           multi-word and some are not.  We make an attempt at



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Net::POP3(3p)    Perl Programmers Reference Guide   Net::POP3(3p)


           intelligently parsing them, but it may not be correct.

       capabilities ()
           Just like capa, but only uses a cache from the last
           time we asked the server, so as to avoid asking more
           than once.

       top ( MSGNUM [, NUMLINES ] )
           Get the header and the first "NUMLINES" of the body
           for the message "MSGNUM". Returns a reference to an
           array which contains the lines of text read from the
           server.

       list ( [ MSGNUM ] )
           If called with an argument the "list" returns the size
           of the message in octets.

           If called without arguments a reference to a hash is
           returned. The keys will be the "MSGNUM"'s of all
           undeleted messages and the values will be their size
           in octets.

       get ( MSGNUM [, FH ] )
           Get the message "MSGNUM" from the remote mailbox. If
           "FH" is not given then get returns a reference to an
           array which contains the lines of text read from the
           server. If "FH" is given then the lines returned from
           the server are printed to the filehandle "FH".

       getfh ( MSGNUM )
           As per get(), but returns a tied filehandle.  Reading
           from this filehandle returns the requested message.
           The filehandle will return EOF at the end of the
           message and should not be reused.

       last ()
           Returns the highest "MSGNUM" of all the messages
           accessed.

       popstat ()
           Returns a list of two elements. These are the number
           of undeleted elements and the size of the mbox in
           octets.

       ping ( USER )
           Returns a list of two elements. These are the number
           of new messages and the total number of messages for
           "USER".

       uidl ( [ MSGNUM ] )
           Returns a unique identifier for "MSGNUM" if given. If
           "MSGNUM" is not given "uidl" returns a reference to a
           hash where the keys are the message numbers and the
           values are the unique identifiers.



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Net::POP3(3p)    Perl Programmers Reference Guide   Net::POP3(3p)


       delete ( MSGNUM )
           Mark message "MSGNUM" to be deleted from the remote
           mailbox. All messages that are marked to be deleted
           will be removed from the remote mailbox when the
           server connection closed.

       reset ()
           Reset the status of the remote POP3 server. This
           includes resetting the status of all messages to not
           be deleted.

       quit ()
           Quit and close the connection to the remote POP3
           server. Any messages marked as deleted will be deleted
           from the remote mailbox.

NOTES
       If a "Net::POP3" object goes out of scope before "quit"
       method is called then the "reset" method will called
       before the connection is closed. This means that any
       messages marked to be deleted will not be.

SEE ALSO
       Net::Netrc, Net::Cmd

AUTHOR
       Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c) 1995-2003 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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