L I B W W W - P E R L - 5 ----------------------------- Libwww-perl is a collection of Perl modules which provides a simple and consistent programming interface (API) to the World-Wide Web. The main focus of the library is to provide classes and functions that allow you to write WWW clients, thus libwww-perl said to be a WWW client library. The library also contain modules that are of more general use and even classes that helps you implement simple HTTP servers. There are actually two versions of libwww-perl: one for Perl4, and one for Perl5. Both have a similar architecture, loosely based on the CERN Library of Common Code (nowadays known as 'w3c-libwww'). The Perl4 version is still(?) maintained by Roy Fielding, and was the basis for tools such as MOMSpider. The perl4 version of libwww-perl and much more information about its libraries can be found at: http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/websoft/libwww-perl/ The Perl5 version (this package) is a complete rewrite for Perl5: the code is organized in Modules, provides an Object Oriented API, is updated for the latest HTTP and URL specification, and offers some extended functionality. Full HTTP/1.1 support is on its way. Alpha releases of the LWPng package is currently available from CPAN. PREREQUISITES In order to install and use this package you will need Perl version 5.004 or better. Some modules within this package depend on other packages that are distributed separately from Perl. We recommend that you have the following packages installed before you install libwww-perl: MIME-Base64 HTML-Parser libnet MD5 These packages should be available on CPAN. If you want to access sites using the https protocol, then you need to install the Crypt-SSLeay modules first. (The Net::SSLeay module is not supported any more.) INSTALLATION You install libwww-perl, as you would install any perl module library, by running these commands: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install You can edit the configuration section of Makefile.PL to select which programs to install in addition to the library itself. If you don't want to install any programs (only the library files) and don't want to mess with the Makefile.PL then pass the '-n' option to Makefile.PL: perl Makefile.PL -n If you want to install a private copy of libwww-perl in your home directory, then you should try to produce the initial Makefile with something like this command: perl Makefile.PL LIB=~/perl The Makefile.PL program will start out by checking your perl installation for a few packages that are recommended to be installed together with libwww-perl. Optional network tests are _not_ enabled automatically when you unpack this package. Consult the t/README file for instructions on how to enable these tests. DOCUMENTATION See lib/LWP.pm for an overview of the library. See ChangeLog for recent changes. POD style documentation is included in all modules and scripts. These are normally converted to manual pages and installed as part of the "make install" process. You should also be able to use the 'perldoc' utility to extract and read documentation from the module files directly. SUPPORT Question about how to use this library should be directed to the comp.lang.perl.modules USENET Newsgroup. Bug reports and suggestions for improvements can be sendt to the mailing list. This mailing list is also the place for general discussions and development of the libwww-perl package. You can join the mailing list by sending a message to with "Subscribe" as subject. ^^^^^^^^ AVAILABILITY The latest version of libwww-perl should always be available from: http://www.linpro.no/lwp/ The library is also available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Visit to find a CPAN site near you. COPYRIGHT © 1995-1998 Gisle Aas. All rights reserved. © 1995 Martijn Koster. All rights reserved. This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Enjoy!