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Net::SMTP

Perl 5 version 8.8 documentation
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Net::SMTP

NAME

Net::SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Client

SYNOPSIS

  1.     use Net::SMTP;
  3.     # Constructors
  4.     $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost');
  5.     $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:

  1.     #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
  3.     use Net::SMTP;
  5.     $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost');
  6.     print $smtp->domain,"\n";
  7.     $smtp->quit;

This example sends a small message to the postmaster at the SMTP server known as mailhost:

  1.     #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
  3.     use Net::SMTP;
  5.     $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost');
  7.     $smtp->mail($ENV{USER});
  8.     $smtp->to('postmaster');
  10.     $smtp->data();
  11.     $smtp->datasend("To: postmaster\n");
  12.     $smtp->datasend("\n");
  13.     $smtp->datasend("A simple test message\n");
  14.     $smtp->dataend();
  16.     $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

    Example:

    1.     $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost',
    2. 			   Hello => 'my.mail.domain'
    3. 			   Timeout => 30,
    4.                            Debug   => 1,
    5. 			  );
    7.     # the same
    8.     $smtp = Net::SMTP->new(
    9. 			   Host => 'mailhost',
    10. 			   Hello => 'my.mail.domain'
    11. 			   Timeout => 30,
    12.                            Debug   => 1,
    13. 			  );
    15.     # Connect to the default server from Net::config
    16.     $smtp = Net::SMTP->new(
    17. 			   Hello => 'my.mail.domain'
    18. 			   Timeout => 30,
    19. 			  );

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:

    1.  Size        => <bytes>
    2.  Return      => "FULL" | "HDRS"
    3.  Bits        => "7" | "8" | "binary"
    4.  Transaction => <ADDRESS>
    5.  Envelope    => <ENVID>
    6.  XVERP       => 1

    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 also pass additional case-sensitive OPTIONS as an anonymous hash using key and value pairs. Possible options are:

    1.   Notify  => ['NEVER'] or ['SUCCESS','FAILURE','DELAY']  (see below)
    2.   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.

    1.   $smtp->recipient($recipient1,$recipient2);  # Good
    2.   $smtp->recipient($recipient1,$recipient2, { SkipBad => 1 });  # Good
    3.   $smtp->recipient($recipient1,$recipient2, { Notify => ['FAILURE','DELAY'], SkipBad => 1 });  # Good
    4.   @goodrecips=$smtp->recipient(@recipients, { Notify => ['FAILURE'], SkipBad => 1 });  # Good
    5.   $smtp->recipient("$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."

    1.   {Notify => ['NEVER']}
    3.   $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."

    1.   {Notify => ['SUCCESS','FAILURE','DELAY']}
    3.   $smtp->recipient(@recipients, { Notify => ['FAILURE','DELAY'], SkipBad => 1 });  # Good
  • 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 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.

  1.  funny user@domain      WRONG
  2.  "funny user"@domain    RIGHT, recommended
  3.  <"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.

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