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NAME

       Net::SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Client

SYNOPSIS

           use Net::SMTP;

           # Constructors
           $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost');
           $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost', Timeout => 60);

DESCRIPTION

       This module implements a client interface to the SMTP and ESMTP protocol, enabling a perl5 application to
       talk to SMTP servers. This documentation assumes that you are familiar with the concepts of the SMTP
       protocol described in RFC2821.  With IO::Socket::SSL installed it also provides support for implicit and
       explicit TLS encryption, i.e. SMTPS or SMTP+STARTTLS.

       The Net::SMTP class is a subclass of Net::Cmd and (depending on avaibility) of IO::Socket::IP,
       IO::Socket::INET6 or IO::Socket::INET.

   Class Methods
       "new([$host][, %options])"
           This  is the constructor for a new Net::SMTP object. $host is the name of the remote host to which an
           SMTP connection is required.

           On failure "undef" will be returned and $@ will contain the reason for the failure.

           $host is optional. If $host is not given then it may instead be passed as the "Host" option described
           below. If neither is given then the "SMTP_Hosts" specified in "Net::Config" will be used.

           %options are passed in a hash like fashion, using key and value pairs.  Possible options are:

           Hello - SMTP requires that you identify yourself. This option specifies a string to pass as your mail
           domain. If not given localhost.localdomain will be used.

           SendHello - If false then the EHLO (or HELO) command that is  normally  sent  when  constructing  the
           object  will  not  be sent. In that case the command will have to be sent manually by calling hello()
           instead.

           Host - SMTP host to connect to. It may be a single  scalar  (hostname[:port]),  as  defined  for  the
           "PeerAddr"  option  in  IO::Socket::INET,  or  a reference to an array with hosts to try in turn. The
           "host" method will return the value which was used to connect to the host.  Format - "PeerHost"  from
           IO::Socket::INET new method.

           Port - port to connect to.  Default - 25 for plain SMTP and 465 for immediate SSL.

           SSL  -  If  the  connection  should  be  done  from  start  with  SSL, contrary to later upgrade with
           "starttls".  You can use SSL arguments as documented in IO::Socket::SSL, but it will usually use  the
           right arguments already.

           LocalAddr  and  LocalPort  -  These parameters are passed directly to IO::Socket to allow binding the
           socket to a specific local address and port.

           Domain - This parameter is passed directly to IO::Socket  and  makes  it  possible  to  enforce  IPv4
           connections even if IO::Socket::IP is used as super class. Alternatively Family can be used.

           Timeout - Maximum time, in seconds, to wait for a response from the SMTP server (default: 120)

           ExactAddresses - If true then all $address arguments must be as defined by "addr-spec" in RFC2822. If
           not given, or false, then Net::SMTP will attempt to extract the address from the value passed.

           Debug - Enable debugging information

           Example:

               $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost',
                                      Hello => 'my.mail.domain',
                                      Timeout => 30,
                                      Debug   => 1,
                                     );

               # the same
               $smtp = Net::SMTP->new(
                                      Host => 'mailhost',
                                      Hello => 'my.mail.domain',
                                      Timeout => 30,
                                      Debug   => 1,
                                     );

               # the same with direct SSL
               $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost',
                                      Hello => 'my.mail.domain',
                                      Timeout => 30,
                                      Debug   => 1,
                                      SSL     => 1,
                                     );

               # Connect to the default server from Net::config
               $smtp = Net::SMTP->new(
                                      Hello => 'my.mail.domain',
                                      Timeout => 30,
                                     );

Object Methods

       Unless  otherwise  stated  all  methods  return  either a true or false value, with true meaning that the
       operation was a success. When a method states that it returns a value, failure will be returned as  undef
       or an empty list.

       "Net::SMTP" inherits from "Net::Cmd" so methods defined in "Net::Cmd" may be used to send commands to the
       remote SMTP server in addition to the methods documented here.

       banner()
           Returns the banner message which the server replied with when the initial connection was made.

       domain()
           Returns the domain that the remote SMTP server identified itself as during connection.

       hello($domain)
           Tell  the  remote  server  the  mail  domain which you are in using the EHLO command (or HELO if EHLO
           fails).  Since this method is invoked automatically when the Net::SMTP object is constructed the user
           should normally not have to call it manually.

       host()
           Returns the value used by the constructor, and passed to IO::Socket::INET, to connect to the host.

       etrn($domain)
           Request a queue run for the $domain given.

       starttls(%sslargs)
           Upgrade  existing  plain  connection  to  SSL.   You  can  use  SSL  arguments   as   documented   in
           IO::Socket::SSL, but it will usually use the right arguments already.

       "auth($username, $password)"
       auth($sasl)
           Attempt  SASL  authentication.  Requires  Authen::SASL  module.  The  first  form  constructs  a  new
           Authen::SASL object  using  the  given  username  and  password;  the  second  form  uses  the  given
           Authen::SASL object.

       "mail($address[, %options])"
       send($address)
       send_or_mail($address)
       send_and_mail($address)
           Send  the  appropriate command to the server MAIL, SEND, SOML or SAML. $address is the address of the
           sender. This initiates the sending of a message. The method "recipient" should  be  called  for  each
           address that the message is to be sent to.

           The "mail" method can take some additional ESMTP %options which is passed in hash like fashion, using
           key and value pairs.  Possible options are:

            Size        => <bytes>
            Return      => "FULL" | "HDRS"
            Bits        => "7" | "8" | "binary"
            Transaction => <ADDRESS>
            Envelope    => <ENVID>     # xtext-encodes its argument
            ENVID       => <ENVID>     # similar to Envelope, but expects argument encoded
            XVERP       => 1
            AUTH        => <submitter> # encoded address according to RFC 2554

           The "Return" and "Envelope" parameters are used for DSN (Delivery Status Notification).

           The  submitter  address in "AUTH" option is expected to be in a format as required by RFC 2554, in an
           RFC2821-quoted form and xtext-encoded, or <> .

       reset()
           Reset the status of the server. This may be called after a message has been initiated, but before any
           data has been sent, to cancel the sending of the message.

       "recipient($address[, $address[, ...]][, %options])"
           Notify the server that the current message should be sent to all of the addresses given. Each address
           is sent as a separate command to the server.  Should the sending of any address result in  a  failure
           then  the  process  is aborted and a false value is returned. It is up to the user to call "reset" if
           they so desire.

           The "recipient" method can also pass additional case-sensitive %options as an  anonymous  hash  using
           key and value pairs.  Possible options are:

             Notify  => ['NEVER'] or ['SUCCESS','FAILURE','DELAY']  (see below)
             ORcpt   => <ORCPT>
             SkipBad => 1        (to ignore bad addresses)

           If  "SkipBad"  is true the "recipient" will not return an error when a bad address is encountered and
           it will return an array of addresses that did succeed.

             $smtp->recipient($recipient1,$recipient2);  # Good
             $smtp->recipient($recipient1,$recipient2, { SkipBad => 1 });  # Good
             $smtp->recipient($recipient1,$recipient2, { Notify => ['FAILURE','DELAY'], SkipBad => 1 });  # Good
             @goodrecips=$smtp->recipient(@recipients, { Notify => ['FAILURE'], SkipBad => 1 });  # Good
             $smtp->recipient("$recipient,$recipient2"); # BAD

           Notify is used to request Delivery Status Notifications (DSNs), but your SMTP/ESMTP service  may  not
           respect this request depending upon its version and your site's SMTP configuration.

           Leaving  out the Notify option usually defaults an SMTP service to its default behavior equivalent to
           ['FAILURE'] notifications only, but again this may be dependent upon your site's SMTP configuration.

           The NEVER keyword must appear by itself if used within the Notify option and "requests that a DSN not
           be returned to the sender under any conditions."

             {Notify => ['NEVER']}

             $smtp->recipient(@recipients, { Notify => ['NEVER'], SkipBad => 1 });  # Good

           You may use any combination of these three values 'SUCCESS','FAILURE','DELAY' in the anonymous  array
           reference  as  defined  by  RFC3461 (see <https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3461.txt> for more information.
           Note: quotations in this topic from same.).

           A Notify parameter of 'SUCCESS' or 'FAILURE' "requests that a DSN be issued on successful delivery or
           delivery failure, respectively."

           A Notify parameter of 'DELAY' "indicates the sender's willingness to receive delayed  DSNs.   Delayed
           DSNs  may  be  issued  if  delivery  of  a message has been delayed for an unusual amount of time (as
           determined by the Message Transfer Agent (MTA) at which  the  message  is  delayed),  but  the  final
           delivery  status  (whether  successful  or  failure)  cannot be determined.  The absence of the DELAY
           keyword in a NOTIFY parameter requests that a "delayed" DSN NOT be issued under any conditions."

             {Notify => ['SUCCESS','FAILURE','DELAY']}

             $smtp->recipient(@recipients, { Notify => ['FAILURE','DELAY'], SkipBad => 1 });  # Good

           ORcpt is also part of the SMTP DSN extension according to RFC3461.  It is  used  to  pass  along  the
           original  recipient  that the mail was first sent to.  The machine that generates a DSN will use this
           address to inform the sender, because he can't know if recipients get rewritten by mail servers.   It
           is expected to be in a format as required by RFC3461, xtext-encoded.

       "to($address[, $address[, ...]])"
       "cc($address[, $address[, ...]])"
       "bcc($address[, $address[, ...]])"
           Synonyms for "recipient".

       data([$data])
           Initiate the sending of the data from the current message.

           $data  may be a reference to a list or a list and must be encoded by the caller to octets of whatever
           encoding is required, e.g. by using the Encode module's encode() function.

           If specified the contents of $data and a termination string ".\r\n" is sent to the server. The result
           will be true if the data was accepted.

           If $data is not specified then the result will indicate that the server wishes the data to  be  sent.
           The data must then be sent using the "datasend" and "dataend" methods described in Net::Cmd.

       bdat($data)
       bdatlast($data)
           Use  the alternate $data command "BDAT" of the data chunking service extension defined in RFC1830 for
           efficiently sending large MIME messages.

       expand($address)
           Request the server to expand the given address Returns an array which contains the text read from the
           server.

       verify($address)
           Verify that $address is a legitimate mailing address.

           Most sites usually disable this feature in their SMTP service configuration.  Use "Debug => 1" option
           under new() to see if disabled.

       help([$subject])
           Request help text from the server. Returns the text or undef upon failure

       quit()
           Send the QUIT command to the remote SMTP server and close the socket connection.

       can_inet6()
           Returns whether we can use IPv6.

       can_ssl()
           Returns whether we can use SSL.

   Addresses
       Net::SMTP attempts to DWIM with addresses that are passed. For example an application might  extract  The
       From:  line  from  an  email  and  pass  that to mail(). While this may work, it is not recommended.  The
       application should really use a module like Mail::Address to extract the mail address and pass that.

       If "ExactAddresses" is passed to the  constructor,  then  addresses  should  be  a  valid  rfc2821-quoted
       address, although Net::SMTP will accept the address surrounded by angle brackets.

        funny user@domain      WRONG
        "funny user"@domain    RIGHT, recommended
        <"funny user"@domain>  OK

EXAMPLES

       This example prints the mail domain name of the SMTP server known as mailhost:

           #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

           use Net::SMTP;

           $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost');
           print $smtp->domain,"\n";
           $smtp->quit;

       This example sends a small message to the postmaster at the SMTP server known as mailhost:

           #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

           use Net::SMTP;

           my $smtp = Net::SMTP->new('mailhost');

           $smtp->mail($ENV{USER});
           if ($smtp->to('postmaster')) {
            $smtp->data();
            $smtp->datasend("To: postmaster\n");
            $smtp->datasend("\n");
            $smtp->datasend("A simple test message\n");
            $smtp->dataend();
           } else {
            print "Error: ", $smtp->message();
           }

           $smtp->quit;

EXPORTS

       None.

KNOWN BUGS

       See <https://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Status=Active&Queue=libnet>.

SEE ALSO

       Net::Cmd, IO::Socket::SSL.

AUTHOR

       Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com <mailto:gbarr@pobox.com>>.

       Steve Hay <shay@cpan.org <mailto:shay@cpan.org>> is now maintaining libnet as of version 1.22_02.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Graham Barr.  All rights reserved.

       Copyright (C) 2013-2016, 2020 Steve Hay.  All rights reserved.

LICENCE

       This  module  is  free  software;  you  can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl
       itself, i.e. under the terms of either the GNU  General  Public  License  or  the  Artistic  License,  as
       specified in the LICENCE file.

VERSION

       Version 3.15

DATE

       20 March 2023

HISTORY

       See the Changes file.

perl v5.40.1                                       2025-04-14                                   Net::SMTP(3perl)