What it is:
modules Net::Gen, Net::Inet, Net::TCP, Net::UDP, and Net::UNIX.
Net::Gen is not a good name, I know that, but what's
in it really belongs in Socket, I think. In any case,
I'm open to votes for a better name.
What's different from other offerings:
Layering keeps PF_INET things in Inet, and only socket-generic
stuff is in Gen.
Friendly {g,s}etsockopt.
A TIESCALAR interface for really simple socket communications.
Properly handles connects to hosts with multiple addresses as
long as gethostbyname() returns more than one address. (RFC 1123)
What's still missing:
Support for non-blocking sockets is untested at best.
The select, fhvec, ioctl, and fcntl methods are crude hacks.
A proper set of regression & verification tests.
Proper handling of timeout options.
Finished integration with 5.003_13 & later features.
Probably several other things I won't have missed (yet).
The .pm files themselves are pod-ified (somewhat), with a catalogue of
the methods. I've found them to be most readable after something like
pod/pod2man ext/Net/Gen/Gen.pm | nroff -man | less -is
Your mileage may vary.
I'm not a tech. writer, nor do I usually play one on the net. The
documentation could still use a lot of work, I'm sure.
Making it work requires perl 5.003_93 or later.
A simple test script:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use Net::TCP;
$f = new Net::TCP 0, 'finger';
die "Can't establish finger socket: $!\n" unless $f;
put $f "-s\n";
$f->shutdown(1);
print $line while defined($line = getline $f);
undef $f;
die "Can't tie to finger socket: $!\n" unless
tie $f,'Net::TCP',0,'finger';
$f = "-s\n";
tied($f)->shutdown(1);
print $line while (defined $line=$f);
untie $f;
Should be the same (on most BSD-ish systems, anyway) as
finger ; finger
to the shell.
Anyway, bug reports & feature requests to me (
[email protected]).
