# phpman > man > Net::protoent

## NAME
    [Net::protoent](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Net%3A%3Aprotoent/markdown) - by-name interface to Perl's built-in getproto*() functions

## SYNOPSIS
     use [Net::protoent](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Net%3A%3Aprotoent/markdown);
     $p = getprotobyname(shift || 'tcp') || die "no proto";
     printf "proto for %s is %d, aliases are %s\n",
        $p->name, $p->proto, "@{$p->aliases}";

     use [Net::protoent](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Net%3A%3Aprotoent/markdown) qw(:FIELDS);
     getprotobyname(shift || 'tcp') || die "no proto";
     print "proto for $p_name is $p_proto, aliases are @p_aliases\n";

## DESCRIPTION
    This module's default exports override the core getprotoent(), getprotobyname(), and
### getnetbyport
    take default second arguments of "tcp". This object has methods that return the similarly named
    structure field name from the C's protoent structure from netdb.h; namely name, aliases, and
    proto. The aliases method returns an array reference, the rest scalars.

    You may also import all the structure fields directly into your namespace as regular variables
    using the :FIELDS import tag. (Note that this still overrides your core functions.) Access these
    fields as variables named with a preceding "p_". Thus, "$proto_obj->name()" corresponds to
    $p_name if you import the fields. Array references are available as regular array variables, so
    for example "@{ $proto_obj->aliases() }" would be simply @p_aliases.

    The getproto() function is a simple front-end that forwards a numeric argument to
### getprotobyport

    To access this functionality without the core overrides, pass the "use" an empty import list,
    and then access function functions with their full qualified names. On the other hand, the
    built-ins are still available via the "CORE::" pseudo-package.

## NOTE
    While this class is currently implemented using the [Class::Struct](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Class%3A%3AStruct/markdown) module to build a struct-like
    class, you shouldn't rely upon this.

## AUTHOR
    Tom Christiansen