phpMan > man > Net::POP3(3pm)

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

SYNOPSIS
        use Net::POP3;

        # Constructors
        $pop = Net::POP3->new('pop3host');
        $pop = Net::POP3->new('pop3host', Timeout => 60);
        $pop = Net::POP3->new('pop3host', SSL => 1, Timeout => 60);

        if ($pop->login($username, $password) > 0) {
          my $msgnums = $pop->list; # hashref of msgnum => size
          foreach my $msgnum (keys %$msgnums) {
            my $msg = $pop->get($msgnum);
            print @$msg;
            $pop->delete($msgnum);
          }
        }

        $pop->quit;

DESCRIPTION
    This module implements a client interface to the POP3 protocol, enabling a perl5 application to
    talk to POP3 servers. This documentation assumes that you are familiar with the POP3 protocol
    described in RFC1939. With IO::Socket::SSL installed it also provides support for implicit and
    explicit TLS encryption, i.e. POP3S or POP3+STARTTLS.

    A new Net::POP3 object must be created with the *new* method. Once this has been done, all POP3
    commands are accessed via method calls on the object.

    The Net::POP3 class is a subclass of Net::Cmd and (depending on avaibility) of IO::Socket::IP,
    IO::Socket::INET6 or IO::Socket::INET.

  Class Methods
    "new([$host][, %options])"
        This is the constructor for a new Net::POP3 object. $host is the name of the remote host to
        which an POP3 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 "POP3_Hosts" specified in "Net::Config" will
        be used.

        %options are passed in a hash like fashion, using key and value pairs. Possible options are:

        Host - POP3 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.

        Port - port to connect to. Default - 110 for plain POP3 and 995 for POP3s (direct 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 specific local address and port. For compatibility with older
        versions ResvPort can be used instead of LocalPort.

        Domain - This parameter is passed directly to IO::Socket and makes it possible to enforce
        IPv4 connections even if IO::Socket::IP is used as super class. Alternatively Family can be
        used.

        Timeout - Maximum time, in seconds, to wait for a response from the POP3 server (default:
        120)

        Debug - Enable debugging information

  Object 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::POP3" inherits from "Net::Cmd" so methods defined in "Net::Cmd" may be used to send
    commands to the remote POP3 server in addition to the methods documented here.

    "host()"
        Returns the value used by the constructor, and passed to IO::Socket::INET, to connect to the
        host.

    "auth($username, $password)"
        Attempt SASL authentication.

    "user($user)"
        Send the USER command.

    "pass($pass)"
        Send the PASS command. Returns the number of messages in the mailbox.

    "login([$user[, $pass]])"
        Send both the USER and PASS commands. If $pass is not given the "Net::POP3" uses
        "Net::Netrc" to lookup the password using the host and username. If the username is not
        specified then the current user name will be used.

        Returns the number of messages in the mailbox. However if there are no messages on the
        server the string "0E0" will be returned. This is will give a true value in a boolean
        context, but zero in a numeric context.

        If there was an error authenticating the user then *undef* will be returned.

    "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.

    "apop([$user[, $pass]])"
        Authenticate with the server identifying as $user with password $pass. Similar to "login",
        but the password is not sent in clear text.

        To use this method you must have the Digest::MD5 or the MD5 module installed, otherwise this
        method will return *undef*.

    "banner()"
        Return the sever's connection banner

    "capa()"
        Return a reference to a hash of the capabilities of the server. APOP is added as a pseudo
        capability. Note that I've been unable to find a list of the standard capability values, and
        some appear to be multi-word and some are not. We make an attempt at intelligently parsing
        them, but it may not be correct.

    "capabilities()"
        Just like capa, but only uses a cache from the last time we asked the server, so as to avoid
        asking more than once.

    "top($msgnum[, $numlines])"
        Get the header and the first $numlines of the body for the message $msgnum. Returns a
        reference to an array which contains the lines of text read from the server.

    "list([$msgnum])"
        If called with an argument the "list" returns the size of the message in octets.

        If called without arguments a reference to a hash is returned. The keys will be the
        $msgnum's of all undeleted messages and the values will be their size in octets.

    "get($msgnum[, $fh])"
        Get the message $msgnum from the remote mailbox. If $fh is not given then get returns a
        reference to an array which contains the lines of text read from the server. If $fh is given
        then the lines returned from the server are printed to the filehandle $fh.

    "getfh($msgnum)"
        As per get(), but returns a tied filehandle. Reading from this filehandle returns the
        requested message. The filehandle will return EOF at the end of the message and should not
        be reused.

    "last()"
        Returns the highest $msgnum of all the messages accessed.

    "popstat()"
        Returns a list of two elements. These are the number of undeleted elements and the size of
        the mbox in octets.

    "ping($user)"
        Returns a list of two elements. These are the number of new messages and the total number of
        messages for $user.

    "uidl([$msgnum])"
        Returns a unique identifier for $msgnum if given. If $msgnum is not given "uidl" returns a
        reference to a hash where the keys are the message numbers and the values are the unique
        identifiers.

    "delete($msgnum)"
        Mark message $msgnum to be deleted from the remote mailbox. All messages that are marked to
        be deleted will be removed from the remote mailbox when the server connection closed.

    "reset()"
        Reset the status of the remote POP3 server. This includes resetting the status of all
        messages to not be deleted.

    "quit()"
        Quit and close the connection to the remote POP3 server. Any messages marked as deleted will
        be deleted from the remote mailbox.

    "can_inet6()"
        Returns whether we can use IPv6.

    "can_ssl()"
        Returns whether we can use SSL.

  Notes
    If a "Net::POP3" object goes out of scope before "quit" method is called then the "reset" method
    will called before the connection is closed. This means that any messages marked to be deleted
    will not be.

EXPORTS
    *None*.

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

SEE ALSO
    Net::Netrc, Net::Cmd, IO::Socket::SSL.

AUTHOR
    Graham Barr <gbarr AT pobox.com <mailto:gbarr AT pobox.com>>.

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

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Graham Barr. All rights reserved.

    Copyright (C) 2013-2016, 2020 Steve Hay. All rights reserved.

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

VERSION
    Version 3.13

DATE
    23 Dec 2020

HISTORY
    See the Changes file.