


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


NAME
       Net::Cmd - Network Command class (as used by FTP, SMTP
       etc)

SYNOPSIS
           use Net::Cmd;

           @ISA = qw(Net::Cmd);

DESCRIPTION
       "Net::Cmd" is a collection of methods that can be
       inherited by a sub class of "IO::Handle". These methods
       implement the functionality required for a command based
       protocol, for example FTP and SMTP.

USER METHODS
       These methods provide a user interface to the "Net::Cmd"
       object.

       debug ( VALUE )
           Set the level of debug information for this object. If
           "VALUE" is not given then the current state is
           returned. Otherwise the state is changed to "VALUE"
           and the previous state returned.

           Different packages may implement different levels of
           debug but a non-zero value results in copies of all
           commands and responses also being sent to STDERR.

           If "VALUE" is "undef" then the debug level will be set
           to the default debug level for the class.

           This method can also be called as a static method to
           set/get the default debug level for a given class.

       message ()
           Returns the text message returned from the last
           command

       code ()
           Returns the 3-digit code from the last command. If a
           command is pending then the value 0 is returned

       ok ()
           Returns non-zero if the last code value was greater
           than zero and less than 400. This holds true for most
           command servers. Servers where this does not hold may
           override this method.

       status ()
           Returns the most significant digit of the current
           status code. If a command is pending then
           "CMD_PENDING" is returned.




perl v5.10.1                2008-09-29                          1





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


       datasend ( DATA )
           Send data to the remote server, converting LF to CRLF.
           Any line starting with a '.' will be prefixed with
           another '.'.  "DATA" may be an array or a reference to
           an array.

       dataend ()
           End the sending of data to the remote server. This is
           done by ensuring that the data already sent ends with
           CRLF then sending '.CRLF' to end the transmission.
           Once this data has been sent "dataend" calls
           "response" and returns true if "response" returns
           CMD_OK.

CLASS METHODS
       These methods are not intended to be called by the user,
       but used or over-ridden by a sub-class of "Net::Cmd"

       debug_print ( DIR, TEXT )
           Print debugging information. "DIR" denotes the
           direction true being data being sent to the server.
           Calls "debug_text" before printing to STDERR.

       debug_text ( TEXT )
           This method is called to print debugging information.
           TEXT is the text being sent. The method should return
           the text to be printed

           This is primarily meant for the use of modules such as
           FTP where passwords are sent, but we do not want to
           display them in the debugging information.

       command ( CMD [, ARGS, ... ])
           Send a command to the command server. All arguments a
           first joined with a space character and CRLF is
           appended, this string is then sent to the command
           server.

           Returns undef upon failure

       unsupported ()
           Sets the status code to 580 and the response text to
           'Unsupported command'.  Returns zero.

       response ()
           Obtain a response from the server. Upon success the
           most significant digit of the status code is returned.
           Upon failure, timeout etc., undef is returned.

       parse_response ( TEXT )
           This method is called by "response" as a method with
           one argument. It should return an array of 2 values,
           the 3-digit status code and a flag which is true when
           this is part of a multi-line response and this line is



perl v5.10.1                2008-09-29                          2





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


           not the list.

       getline ()
           Retrieve one line, delimited by CRLF, from the remote
           server. Returns undef upon failure.

           NOTE: If you do use this method for any reason, please
           remember to add some "debug_print" calls into your
           method.

       ungetline ( TEXT )
           Unget a line of text from the server.

       rawdatasend ( DATA )
           Send data to the remote server without performing any
           conversions. "DATA" is a scalar.

       read_until_dot ()
           Read data from the remote server until a line
           consisting of a single '.'.  Any lines starting with
           '..' will have one of the '.'s removed.

           Returns a reference to a list containing the lines, or
           undef upon failure.

       tied_fh ()
           Returns a filehandle tied to the Net::Cmd object.
           After issuing a command, you may read from this
           filehandle using read() or <>.  The filehandle will
           return EOF when the final dot is encountered.
           Similarly, you may write to the filehandle in order to
           send data to the server after issuing a command that
           expects data to be written.

           See the Net::POP3 and Net::SMTP modules for examples
           of this.

EXPORTS
       "Net::Cmd" exports six subroutines, five of these,
       "CMD_INFO", "CMD_OK", "CMD_MORE", "CMD_REJECT" and
       "CMD_ERROR", correspond to possible results of "response"
       and "status". The sixth is "CMD_PENDING".

AUTHOR
       Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c) 1995-2006 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.







perl v5.10.1                2008-09-29                          3


