NAME

LWP::Simple - simple procedural interface to LWP

SYNOPSIS

 perl -MLWP::Simple -e 'getprint "http://www.sn.no"' use LWP::Simple; $content = get("http://www.sn.no/"); die "Couldn't get it!" unless defined $content; if (mirror("http://www.sn.no/", "foo") == RC_NOT_MODIFIED) {     ... } if (is_success(getprint("http://www.sn.no/"))) {     ... }

DESCRIPTION

This module is meant for people who want a simplified view of the libwww-perl library. It should also be suitable for one-liners. If you need more control or access to the header fields in the requests sent and responses received, then you should use the full object-oriented interface provided by the LWP::UserAgent module.

The module will also export the LWP::UserAgent object as $ua if you ask for it explicitly.

The user agent created by this module will identify itself as "LWP::Simple/#.##" and will initialize its proxy defaults from the environment (by calling "$ua->env_proxy").

FUNCTIONS

The following functions are provided (and exported) by this module:

get

    my $res = get($url);

The get() function will fetch the document identified by the given URL and return it. It returns "undef" if it fails. The $url argument can be either a string or a reference to a URI object.

You will not be able to examine the response code or response headers (like "Content-Type") when you are accessing the web using this function. If you need that information you should use the full OO interface (see LWP::UserAgent).

head

    my $res = head($url);

Get document headers. Returns the following 5 values if successful: ($content_type, $document_length, $modified_time, $expires, $server)

Returns an empty list if it fails. In scalar context returns TRUE if successful.

getprint

    my $code = getprint($url);

Get and print a document identified by a URL. The document is printed to the selected default filehandle for output (normally STDOUT) as data is received from the network. If the request fails, then the status code and message are printed on STDERR. The return value is the HTTP response code.

getstore

    my $code = getstore($url, $file)    my $code = getstore($url, $filehandle)

Gets a document identified by a URL and stores it in the file. The return value is the HTTP response code. You may also pass a writeable filehandle or similar, such as a File::Temp object.

mirror

    my $code = mirror($url, $file);

Get and store a document identified by a URL, using If-modified-since, and checking the Content-Length. Returns the HTTP response code.

STATUS CONSTANTS

This module also exports the HTTP::Status constants and procedures. You can use them when you check the response code from "getprint" in LWP::Simple, "getstore" in LWP::Simple or "mirror" in LWP::Simple. The constants are:

   RC_CONTINUE   RC_SWITCHING_PROTOCOLS   RC_OK   RC_CREATED   RC_ACCEPTED   RC_NON_AUTHORITATIVE_INFORMATION   RC_NO_CONTENT   RC_RESET_CONTENT   RC_PARTIAL_CONTENT   RC_MULTIPLE_CHOICES   RC_MOVED_PERMANENTLY   RC_MOVED_TEMPORARILY   RC_SEE_OTHER   RC_NOT_MODIFIED   RC_USE_PROXY   RC_BAD_REQUEST   RC_UNAUTHORIZED   RC_PAYMENT_REQUIRED   RC_FORBIDDEN   RC_NOT_FOUND   RC_METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED   RC_NOT_ACCEPTABLE   RC_PROXY_AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED   RC_REQUEST_TIMEOUT   RC_CONFLICT   RC_GONE   RC_LENGTH_REQUIRED   RC_PRECONDITION_FAILED   RC_REQUEST_ENTITY_TOO_LARGE   RC_REQUEST_URI_TOO_LARGE   RC_UNSUPPORTED_MEDIA_TYPE   RC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR   RC_NOT_IMPLEMENTED   RC_BAD_GATEWAY   RC_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE   RC_GATEWAY_TIMEOUT   RC_HTTP_VERSION_NOT_SUPPORTED

CLASSIFICATION FUNCTIONS

The HTTP::Status classification functions are:

is_success

    my $bool = is_success($rc);

True if response code indicated a successful request.

is_error

    my $bool = is_error($rc)

True if response code indicated that an error occurred.

CAVEAT

Note that if you are using both LWP::Simple and the very popular CGI module, you may be importing a "head" function from each module, producing a warning like "Prototype mismatch: sub main::head ($) vs none". Get around this problem by just not importing LWP::Simple's "head" function, like so:

        use LWP::Simple qw(!head);        use CGI qw(:standard);  # then only CGI.pm defines a head()

Then if you do need LWP::Simple's "head" function, you can just call it as "LWP::Simple::head($url)".