1Net::POP3(3)          User Contributed Perl Documentation         Net::POP3(3)
2
3
4

NAME

6       Net::POP3 - Post Office Protocol 3 Client class (RFC1939)
7

SYNOPSIS

9           use Net::POP3;
10
11           # Constructors
12           $pop = Net::POP3->new('pop3host');
13           $pop = Net::POP3->new('pop3host', Timeout => 60);
14           $pop = Net::POP3->new('pop3host', SSL => 1, Timeout => 60);
15
16           if ($pop->login($username, $password) > 0) {
17             my $msgnums = $pop->list; # hashref of msgnum => size
18             foreach my $msgnum (keys %$msgnums) {
19               my $msg = $pop->get($msgnum);
20               print @$msg;
21               $pop->delete($msgnum);
22             }
23           }
24
25           $pop->quit;
26

DESCRIPTION

28       This module implements a client interface to the POP3 protocol,
29       enabling a perl5 application to talk to POP3 servers. This
30       documentation assumes that you are familiar with the POP3 protocol
31       described in RFC1939.  With IO::Socket::SSL installed it also provides
32       support for implicit and explicit TLS encryption, i.e. POP3S or
33       POP3+STARTTLS.
34
35       A new Net::POP3 object must be created with the new method. Once this
36       has been done, all POP3 commands are accessed via method calls on the
37       object.
38
39       The Net::POP3 class is a subclass of Net::Cmd and (depending on
40       avaibility) of IO::Socket::IP, IO::Socket::INET6 or IO::Socket::INET.
41
42   Class Methods
43       "new([$host][, %options])"
44           This is the constructor for a new Net::POP3 object. $host is the
45           name of the remote host to which an POP3 connection is required.
46
47           $host is optional. If $host is not given then it may instead be
48           passed as the "Host" option described below. If neither is given
49           then the "POP3_Hosts" specified in "Net::Config" will be used.
50
51           %options are passed in a hash like fashion, using key and value
52           pairs.  Possible options are:
53
54           Host - POP3 host to connect to. It may be a single scalar, as
55           defined for the "PeerAddr" option in IO::Socket::INET, or a
56           reference to an array with hosts to try in turn. The "host" method
57           will return the value which was used to connect to the host.
58
59           Port - port to connect to.  Default - 110 for plain POP3 and 995
60           for POP3s (direct SSL).
61
62           SSL - If the connection should be done from start with SSL,
63           contrary to later upgrade with "starttls".  You can use SSL
64           arguments as documented in IO::Socket::SSL, but it will usually use
65           the right arguments already.
66
67           LocalAddr and LocalPort - These parameters are passed directly to
68           IO::Socket to allow binding the socket to a specific local address
69           and port.  For compatibility with older versions ResvPort can be
70           used instead of LocalPort.
71
72           Domain - This parameter is passed directly to IO::Socket and makes
73           it possible to enforce IPv4 connections even if IO::Socket::IP is
74           used as super class. Alternatively Family can be used.
75
76           Timeout - Maximum time, in seconds, to wait for a response from the
77           POP3 server (default: 120)
78
79           Debug - Enable debugging information
80
81   Object Methods
82       Unless otherwise stated all methods return either a true or false
83       value, with true meaning that the operation was a success. When a
84       method states that it returns a value, failure will be returned as
85       undef or an empty list.
86
87       "Net::POP3" inherits from "Net::Cmd" so methods defined in "Net::Cmd"
88       may be used to send commands to the remote POP3 server in addition to
89       the methods documented here.
90
91       host()
92           Returns the value used by the constructor, and passed to
93           IO::Socket::INET, to connect to the host.
94
95       "auth($username, $password)"
96           Attempt SASL authentication.
97
98       user($user)
99           Send the USER command.
100
101       pass($pass)
102           Send the PASS command. Returns the number of messages in the
103           mailbox.
104
105       "login([$user[, $pass]])"
106           Send both the USER and PASS commands. If $pass is not given the
107           "Net::POP3" uses "Net::Netrc" to lookup the password using the host
108           and username. If the username is not specified then the current
109           user name will be used.
110
111           Returns the number of messages in the mailbox. However if there are
112           no messages on the server the string "0E0" will be returned. This
113           is will give a true value in a boolean context, but zero in a
114           numeric context.
115
116           If there was an error authenticating the user then undef will be
117           returned.
118
119       starttls(%sslargs)
120           Upgrade existing plain connection to SSL.  You can use SSL
121           arguments as documented in IO::Socket::SSL, but it will usually use
122           the right arguments already.
123
124       "apop([$user[, $pass]])"
125           Authenticate with the server identifying as $user with password
126           $pass.  Similar to "login", but the password is not sent in clear
127           text.
128
129           To use this method you must have the Digest::MD5 or the MD5 module
130           installed, otherwise this method will return undef.
131
132       banner()
133           Return the sever's connection banner
134
135       capa()
136           Return a reference to a hash of the capabilities of the server.
137           APOP is added as a pseudo capability.  Note that I've been unable
138           to find a list of the standard capability values, and some appear
139           to be multi-word and some are not.  We make an attempt at
140           intelligently parsing them, but it may not be correct.
141
142       capabilities()
143           Just like capa, but only uses a cache from the last time we asked
144           the server, so as to avoid asking more than once.
145
146       "top($msgnum[, $numlines])"
147           Get the header and the first $numlines of the body for the message
148           $msgnum. Returns a reference to an array which contains the lines
149           of text read from the server.
150
151       list([$msgnum])
152           If called with an argument the "list" returns the size of the
153           message in octets.
154
155           If called without arguments a reference to a hash is returned. The
156           keys will be the $msgnum's of all undeleted messages and the values
157           will be their size in octets.
158
159       "get($msgnum[, $fh])"
160           Get the message $msgnum from the remote mailbox. If $fh is not
161           given then get returns a reference to an array which contains the
162           lines of text read from the server. If $fh is given then the lines
163           returned from the server are printed to the filehandle $fh.
164
165       getfh($msgnum)
166           As per get(), but returns a tied filehandle.  Reading from this
167           filehandle returns the requested message.  The filehandle will
168           return EOF at the end of the message and should not be reused.
169
170       last()
171           Returns the highest $msgnum of all the messages accessed.
172
173       popstat()
174           Returns a list of two elements. These are the number of undeleted
175           elements and the size of the mbox in octets.
176
177       ping($user)
178           Returns a list of two elements. These are the number of new
179           messages and the total number of messages for $user.
180
181       uidl([$msgnum])
182           Returns a unique identifier for $msgnum if given. If $msgnum is not
183           given "uidl" returns a reference to a hash where the keys are the
184           message numbers and the values are the unique identifiers.
185
186       delete($msgnum)
187           Mark message $msgnum to be deleted from the remote mailbox. All
188           messages that are marked to be deleted will be removed from the
189           remote mailbox when the server connection closed.
190
191       reset()
192           Reset the status of the remote POP3 server. This includes resetting
193           the status of all messages to not be deleted.
194
195       quit()
196           Quit and close the connection to the remote POP3 server. Any
197           messages marked as deleted will be deleted from the remote mailbox.
198
199       can_inet6()
200           Returns whether we can use IPv6.
201
202       can_ssl()
203           Returns whether we can use SSL.
204
205   Notes
206       If a "Net::POP3" object goes out of scope before "quit" method is
207       called then the "reset" method will called before the connection is
208       closed. This means that any messages marked to be deleted will not be.
209

EXPORTS

211       None.
212

KNOWN BUGS

214       See <https://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Status=Active&Queue=libnet>.
215

SEE ALSO

217       Net::Netrc, Net::Cmd, IO::Socket::SSL.
218

AUTHOR

220       Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com <mailto:gbarr@pobox.com>>.
221
222       Steve Hay <shay@cpan.org <mailto:shay@cpan.org>> is now maintaining
223       libnet as of version 1.22_02.
224
226       Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Graham Barr.  All rights reserved.
227
228       Copyright (C) 2013-2016, 2020 Steve Hay.  All rights reserved.
229

LICENCE

231       This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
232       under the same terms as Perl itself, i.e. under the terms of either the
233       GNU General Public License or the Artistic License, as specified in the
234       LICENCE file.
235

VERSION

237       Version 3.15
238

DATE

240       20 March 2023
241

HISTORY

243       See the Changes file.
244
245
246
247perl v5.36.0                      2023-03-21                      Net::POP3(3)
Impressum