Net::hostent(3)						       Net::hostent(3)

NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     Net::hostent - by-name interface to Perl's	built-in gethost*() functions

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

      use Net::hostnet;

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     This module's default exports override the	core gethostbyname() and
     gethostbyaddr() functions,	replacing them with versions that return
     "Net::hostent" objects.  This object has methods that return the
     similarly named structure field name from the C's hostent structure from
     netdb.h; namely name, aliases, addrtype, length, and addr_list.  The
     aliases and addr_list methods return array	reference, the rest scalars.
     The addr method is	equivalent to the zeroth element in the	addr_list
     array reference.

     You may also import all the structure fields directly into	your namespace
     as	regular	variables using	the :FIELDS import tag.	 (Note that this still
     overrides your core functions.)  Access these fields as variables named
     with a preceding h_.  Thus, $host_obj->name() corresponds to $h_name if
     you import	the fields.  Array references are available as regular array
     variables,	so for example @{ $host_obj->aliases() } would be simply
     @h_aliases.

     The gethost() funtion is a	simple front-end that forwards a numeric
     argument to gethostbyaddr() by way	of Socket::inet_aton, and the rest to
     gethostbyname().

     To	access this functionality without the core overrides, pass the use an
     empty import list,	and then access	function functions with	their full
     qualified names.  On the other hand, the built-ins	are still available
     via the CORE:: pseudo-package.

EXAMPLES    [Toc]    [Back]

      use Net::hostent;
      use Socket;

      @ARGV = ('netscape.com') unless @ARGV;

      for $host	( @ARGV	) {

	 unless	($h = gethost($host)) {
	     warn "$0: no such host: $host\n";
	     next;
	 }

	 printf	"\n%s is %s%s\n",
		 $host,
		 lc($h->name) eq lc($host) ? ""	: "*really* ",
		 $h->name;




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Net::hostent(3)						       Net::hostent(3)



	 print "\taliases are ", join(", ", @{$h->aliases}), "\n"
		     if	@{$h->aliases};

	 if ( @{$h->addr_list} > 1 ) {
	     my	$i;
	     for $addr ( @{$h->addr_list} ) {
		 printf	"\taddr	#%d is [%s]\n",	$i++, inet_ntoa($addr);
	     }
	 } else	{
	     printf "\taddress is [%s]\n", inet_ntoa($h->addr);
	 }

	 if ($h	= gethostbyaddr($h->addr)) {
	     if	(lc($h->name) ne lc($host)) {
		 printf	"\tThat	addr reverses to host %s!\n", $h->name;
		 $host = $h->name;
		 redo;
	     }
	 }
      }

NOTE    [Toc]    [Back]

     While this	class is currently implemented using the Class::Struct module
     to	build a	struct-like class, you shouldn't rely upon this.

AUTHOR    [Toc]    [Back]

     Tom Christiansen


									PPPPaaaaggggeeee 2222