LWP::Simple(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation LWP::Simple(3)
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 $content;
if (mirror("http://www.sn.no/", "foo") == RC_NOT_MODIFIED) {
...
}
if (is_success(getprint("http://www.sn.no/"))) {
...
}
DESCRIPTION
This module is meant for people who want a simplified view of the libwww-perl library. It should
also be suitable for one-liners. If you need more control or access to the header fields in the
requests sent and responses received, then you should use the full object-oriented interface provided
by the "LWP::UserAgent" module.
The following functions are provided (and exported) by this module:
get($url)
The get() function will fetch the document identified by the given URL and return it. It returns
"undef" if it fails. The $url argument can be either a simple string or a reference to a URI
object.
You will not be able to examine the response code or response headers (like 'Content-Type') when
you are accessing the web using this function. If you need that information you should use the
full OO interface (see LWP::UserAgent).
head($url)
Get document headers. Returns the following 5 values if successful: ($content_type,
$document_length, $modified_time, $expires, $server)
Returns an empty list if it fails. In scalar context returns TRUE if successful.
getprint($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($url, $file)
Gets a document identified by a URL and stores it in the file. The return value is the HTTP
response code.
mirror($url, $file)
Get and store a document identified by a URL, using If-modified-since, and checking the Content-
Length. Returns the HTTP response code.
This module also exports the HTTP::Status constants and procedures. You can use them when you check
the response code from getprint(), getstore() or mirror(). The constants are:
RC_CONTINUE
RC_SWITCHING_PROTOCOLS
RC_OK
RC_CREATED
RC_ACCEPTED
RC_NON_AUTHORITATIVE_INFORMATION
RC_NO_CONTENT
RC_RESET_CONTENT
RC_PARTIAL_CONTENT
RC_MULTIPLE_CHOICES
RC_MOVED_PERMANENTLY
RC_MOVED_TEMPORARILY
RC_SEE_OTHER
RC_NOT_MODIFIED
RC_USE_PROXY
RC_BAD_REQUEST
RC_UNAUTHORIZED
RC_PAYMENT_REQUIRED
RC_FORBIDDEN
RC_NOT_FOUND
RC_METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED
RC_NOT_ACCEPTABLE
RC_PROXY_AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED
RC_REQUEST_TIMEOUT
RC_CONFLICT
RC_GONE
RC_LENGTH_REQUIRED
RC_PRECONDITION_FAILED
RC_REQUEST_ENTITY_TOO_LARGE
RC_REQUEST_URI_TOO_LARGE
RC_UNSUPPORTED_MEDIA_TYPE
RC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR
RC_NOT_IMPLEMENTED
RC_BAD_GATEWAY
RC_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE
RC_GATEWAY_TIMEOUT
RC_HTTP_VERSION_NOT_SUPPORTED
The HTTP::Status classification functions are:
is_success($rc)
True if response code indicated a successful request.
is_error($rc)
True if response code indicated that an error occurred.
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/#.##" (where "#.##" is the
libwww-perl version number) and will initialize its proxy defaults from the environment (by calling
$ua->env_proxy).
CAVEAT
Note that if you are using both LWP::Simple and the very popular CGI.pm module, you may be importing
a "head" function from each module, producing a warning like "Prototype mismatch: sub main::head ($)
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)".
SEE ALSO
LWP, lwpcook, LWP::UserAgent, HTTP::Status, lwp-request, lwp-mirror
perl v5.8.8 2004-05-21 LWP::Simple(3)
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