16.2.1. Send Email with Mail::Mailer

use Mail::Mailer qw(mail);

Another way to specify the mailer is:

use Mail::Mailer;
$type = 'sendmail';
$mailprog = Mail::Mailer->new($type);

in which $type is the mail program. Once you've created a new object, use the open function to send the message headers to the mail program as a hash of key/value pairs, in which each key represents a header type, and the value is the value of that header:

# Mail headers to use in the message
%headers = (
    'To' => '[email protected]',
    'From' => '[email protected]',
    'Subject' => 'working?'
);

This code represents headers in which the recipient of the mail message is [email protected], the mail was sent from [email protected], and the subject of the mail message is working?.

Once %headers has been defined, it is passed to open:

$mailprog->open(\%headers);

You then send the body of the message to the mail program:

print $mailprog "This is the message body.\n";

Close the program when the message is finished:

$mailprog->close;

A practical example of using Mail::Mailer might be a command line-driven application that works much like the Unix mail program, either reading STDIN until end-of-file or mailing a file specified on the command line.

"type1:mailbinary1;mailbinary2;...:type2:mailbinaryX;...:..."

The possible types are listed for the new method below.

The following methods are defined in Mail::Mailer.

16.2.2. Better Header Control with Mail::Send

# Start mailer and output headers
$fh = $msg->open('sendmail');

serves the same purpose as:

# Use sendmail for mailing
$mailer = Mail::Mailer->new('sendmail)';

This code tells Mail::Send to use sendmail as the mail program.

$msg->set($scalar, @array);

Therefore, to address a message to [email protected]:

$msg->set('To', '[email protected]');

The above sets the To header to [email protected]; however, the following sets the To header to [email protected] and [email protected] because they represent an array of values:

$msg->set('To', ('[email protected]', '[email protected]'));

You might think that you could use the set function as follows to add multiple values to a header value:

$msg->set('To', '[email protected]');
$msg->set('To', '[email protected]');

However, set doesn't append information from one call to another, and the above example would send the mail only to [email protected]. To append a name to the To header, use the add method. For example:

$msg->add('To', '[email protected]');
$msg->add('To', '[email protected]');

The following methods are defined for Mail::Send.

16.2.3. Handle Folders with Mail::Folder

Mail::Folder::Emaul

A folder interface somewhat similar to MH.

Mail::Folder::Maildir

An interface to maildir folders.

Mail::Folder::Mbox

Standard Unix mailbox format.

Mail::Folder::NNTP

The beginnings of an interface to NNTP. Not all the methods are implemented yet.

If you are interested in writing a folder interface, see the documentation for the module. The documentation explains the concepts and issues involved and describes some of the methods you may need to override.

The following methods are defined for Mail::Folder.

16.2.4. Handle Messages with Mail::Internet

@lines = <STDIN>;
$mi_obj = new Mail::Internet([@lines]);

reads a mail message from STDIN (using a reference to an array). The following example reads a mail message from a filehandle, FILE:

open(FILE, "/home/nvp/Mail/nvp");
$mi_obj = new Mail::Internet(\*FILE);
close(FILE);

The print_header function outputs the header of a message to a file descriptor; the default is STDOUT:

open(FILE, "/home/nvp/Mail/nvp");
$mi_obj = new Mail::Internet(\*FILE);
close(FILE);
$mi_obj->print_header(\*STDOUT);

The above example might output:

From nvp Mon Jun  9 00:11:10 1997
Received: (from nvp@localhost) by mail.somename.com (8.8/8.8) id
    AAA03248 for nvp; Mon, 9 Jun 1997 00:11:09 -0500 (EST)
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 1997 00:11:09 -0500 (EST)
From: "Nathan V. Patwardhan" <nvp>
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: nvp
Subject: pop test
X-Status:
X-Uid: 1
Status: RO

in which print_body also takes a file descriptor as an argument, but outputs only the body of the message, whereas the print function outputs an entire message.

16.2.5. Mail::Internet Reference

16.2.6. Parse Email Addresses with Mail::Address

"Full Name or Phrase" <username@host> (Comment Area)

For example, under RFC 822, an address might be represented as:

"Nathan V. Patwardhan" <[email protected]> (No Comment)

or:

"Nathan V. Patwardhan" <[email protected]>

The Mail::Address constructor parses an email address into three parts based on the categories shown above:

$addr = Mail::Address->new("Full Name or Phrase",
                           "username@host",
                           "(Comment Area)");

print $addr->phrase( );

outputs:

Nathan V. Patwardhan

the address function:

print $addr->address( );

outputs:

[email protected]

and the comment function:

print $addr->comment( );

outputs:

No Comment

print $addr->user;

outputs:

nvp

And the following line using the host function:

print $addr->host;

outputs:

[email protected]

16.2.7. Mail::Address Reference

16.2.8. Checking Blacklisted Hosts with Mail::RBL

new(suffix)

Creates a list handle. suffix is required because it denotes the host from which you'll check hostnames.

check($host)

Performs the lookup against the RBL. $host can be a hostname or IP address, without trailing netmasks (represented by a / followed by an octet).

For example:

use Mail::RBL;

my $host = q[some-spammer.domain.here];
my $rbl = Mail::RBL->new('list.org');

if($rbl->check($host)) {
    print "$host is in the RBL, and I won't deliver the mail."
} else {
    # Do something to deliver the email
}

16.2.9. Mail Filtering with Mail::Audit

use Mail::Audit;

my $m_au = Mail::Audit->new( );

$m_au->reject("Let me call YOU at home!")
    if $m_au =~ /(spammer\@spammer.com|spammer2\@spammer2.com|spammer3\@spammer3.com)/;

$m_au->accept("Majordomo") if $mail->from =~ /Majordomo\@/;

$m_au->accept( );

Mail::Audit implements the following methods.

new(%options)

body(  )

get(header)

header(  )

ignore(  )

pipe(program)

put(header, value)

reject(message)

resend(address)

tidy(  )

xaccept(filename)