LWP::Simple - simple procedural interface to LWP

- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- CAVEAT
- SEE ALSO

# 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 the LWP::UserAgent manpage).

`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, the lwpcook manpage, the LWP::UserAgent manpage, the HTTP::Status manpage, lwp-request, lwp-mirror

LWP::Simple - simple procedural interface to LWP