Net::SMTP (3)

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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 and protocol, enabling a perl5 application to talk to servers. This documentation assumes that you are familiar with the concepts of the protocol described in

A new Net::SMTP object must be created with the new method. Once this has been done, all

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 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

server known as mailhost:

    #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

    use Net::SMTP;

    my $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost');

    $smtp->mail($ENV{USER});
    if ($smtp->to('postmaster')) {
     $smtp->data();
     $smtp->datasend("To: postmaster\n");
     $smtp->datasend("\n");
     $smtp->datasend("A simple test message\n");
     $smtp->dataend();
    } else {
     print "Error: ", $smtp->message();
    }

    $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.

On failure "undef" will be returned and $@ will contain the reason for the failure.

"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 (hostname[:port]), 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. Format - "PeerHost" from IO::Socket::INET new method.

Port - port to connect to. Default - 25 for plain

SMTP

and 465 for immediate

SSL.

SSL

- If the connection should be done from start with

SSL,

contrary to later upgrade with "starttls". You can use

SSL

arguments as documented in IO::Socket::SSL, but it will usually use the right arguments already.

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,
                          );

    # the same with direct SSL
    $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost',
                           Hello => 'my.mail.domain',
                           Timeout => 30,
                           Debug   => 1,
                           SSL     => 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.

"Net::SMTP" inherits from "Net::Cmd" so methods defined in "Net::Cmd" may be used to send commands to the remote

server in addition to the methods documented here.

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.

starttls (

SSLARGS

)

Upgrade existing plain connection to

SSL.

You can use

SSL

arguments as documented in IO::Socket::SSL, but it will usually use the right arguments already.

auth (

USERNAME, PASSWORD

)

Attempt

SASL

authentication. Requires Authen::SASL module.

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 www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3461.txt 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.

bdat (

DATA

)

bdatlast (

DATA

)

Use the alternate

DATA

command ``

BDAT''

of the data chunking service extension defined in

RFC1830

for efficiently sending large

MIME

messages.

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.

can_inet6 ()

Returns whether we can use IPv6.

can_ssl ()

Returns whether we can use

SSL.

ADDRESSES

Net::SMTP attempts to 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 the address surrounded by angle brackets.

 funny user@domain      WRONG
 "funny user"@domain    RIGHT, recommended
 <"funny user"@domain>  OK

SEE ALSO

Net::Cmd, IO::Socket::SSL

AUTHOR

Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>

Steve Hay <shay@cpan.org> is now maintaining libnet as of version 1.22_02

COPYRIGHT

Versions up to 2.31_1 Copyright (c) 1995-2004 Graham Barr. All rights reserved. Changes in Version 2.31_2 onwards Copyright (C) 2013-2014 Steve Hay. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.