Net::SMTP
Net::SMTP(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation 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 proto-
col, enabling a perl5 application to talk to SMTP servers. This docu-
mentation 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 spec-
ifies a string to pass as your mail domain. If not given local-
host.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 refer-
ence 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,
);
# 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 for-
mat 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 configura-
tion.
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','FAIL-
URE','DELAY' in the anonymous array reference as defined by RFC3461
(see http://rfc.net/rfc3461.html for more information. Note: quo-
tations in this topic from same.).
A Notify parameter of 'SUCCESS' or 'FAILURE' "requests that a DSN
be issued on successful delivery or delivery failure, respec-
tively."
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 deter-
mined 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 con-
figuration. Use "Debug => 1" option under new() to see if dis-
abled.
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.
perl v5.8.6 2007-08-26 Net::SMTP(3)
