Text::Netstring - Perl module for manipulation of netstrings
use Text::Netstring qw(netstring_encode netstring_decode netstring_verify netstring_read); $ns = netstring_encode($text); @ns = netstring_encode(@text); $ns = netstring_encode(@text); $text = netstring_decode($ns); @text = netstring_decode(@ns); $text = netstring_decode(@ns); $valid = netstring_verify($string); @valid = netstring_verify(@string); $valid = netstring_verify(@string); $ns = netstring_read($socket);
This module is a collection of functions to make use of netstrings in your perl programs. A netstring is a string encoding used by, at least, the QMTP and QMQP email protocols.
Encode the argument string, list of strings, or referenced list of strings as a netstring.
Supplying a scalar argument in a scalar context, or a list or list reference argument in list context, does what you'd expect; encoding the scalar or each element of the list as appropriate. Supplying a list or list reference argument in a scalar context, however, returns a single scalar which is the concatenation of each element of the list encoded as a netstring.
Decode the argument netstring, list of netstrings, or referenced list of netstrings returning the interpretation of each. You should use netstring_verify() over any data before you try to decode it. An invalid netstring will be returned as an empty string.
netstring_verify()
The same scalar/list context handling as for netstring_encode() applies.
Check the validity of the supplied netstring, list of netstrings or referenced list of netstrings. Returns a TRUE or FALSE value, or list of same, as appropriate. Supplying a list argument in a scalar context will return a single boolean value which is TRUE if and only if each element of the argument list was successfully verified, otherwise it's FALSE.
TRUE
FALSE
Read the next netstring from a socket reference supplied as an argument. The function returns a scalar which is the netstring read from the socket. You will need to use netstring_decode() on the return value to obtain the string interpretation. Returns undef in case of an error, or an empty string ("") if a premature EOF was encountered.
This function will regard a netstring claiming to be larger than 200,000,000 characters as an error, yielding undef.
use Text::Netstring qw(netstring_encode netstring_decode); @s = ("foo", "bar"); $t = netstring_encode( scalar netstring_encode(@s) );
12:3:foo,3:bar,, is the value of $t
12:3:foo,3:bar,,
$t
$s = ["5:whizz," , "4:bang,"]; $t = netstring_decode($s);
whizzbang is the value of $t
whizzbang
The format of a netstring is described in http://cr.yp.to/proto/qmtp.txt
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. (Being a speaker of British english, I'd call it a "licence" though)
James Raftery <james@now.ie>.
To install Text::Netstring, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Text::Netstring
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Text::Netstring
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.