Network Programming with Perl

Network Programming with Perl is a comprehensive, example-rich guide to creating network-based applications using the Perl programming language. Among its many capabilities, modern Perl provides a straightforward and powerful interface to TCP / IR and this book shows you how to leverage these capabilities to create robust maintainable, and efficient custom client / server applications. The book quickly moves beyond the basics to focus on high-level, application programming concepts, tools, and techniques. Readers will find a review of basic networking concepts and Perl Fundamentals, including Perl's I / O functions, process model, and object-oriented extensions. In addition, the book examines a collection of the best third-party modules in the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network including existing network protocols for e-mail, news, and the Web. The core of the book focuses on methods and alternatives for designing TCP-based client / server Systems and more advanced techniques for specialized applications. Specific topics covered include: The Berkeley Sockets API; The TCP protocol and the 10::Socket API; FTP filesharing service; The Net::Telnet module for adapfing clients to interactive network services; SMTP, including how to create and send e-mails with multimedia attachments; POP, IMAP, and NNTP for receiving and processing e-mail; HTTP and the LWP module for communicating with Web servers; Forking servers and UNIX and Windows inetd daemons; Perl' experimental multithreaded API; Multiplexed operations and nonblocking I / O; Bulletproofing server; TCP urgent data; UDP protocol and servers; Broadcasting and multicasting; Interprocess communication with UNIX domain sockets. Useful, working programs demonstrate ideas and techniques in action, including a real-time chat and messaging system, a program for processing e-mail containing MIME attachments, a program for mirroring an FTP site, and a Web robot. Net Programming with Perl focuses on TCP / IP rather than just the common Web protocols. Modeled after the critically acclaimed TCP / IP Illustrated by W. Richard Stevens, this book achieves a level of detail far superior to most. It is an essential resource for network administrators and Perl programmers who are creating network applications.