NAME

       IO::Socket::PortState - Perl extension for checking the open or closed status of a port.

SYNOPSIS

          use strict;
          use warnings;
          use IO::Socket::PortState qw(check_ports);

          my %porthash = ( ... );

          check_ports($host,$timeout,\%porthash);

          for my $proto (keys %porthash) {
             for(keys %{ $porthash{$proto} }) {
                print "$proto $_ is not open ($porthash{$proto}->{$_}->{name}) if !$porthash{$proto}->{$_}->{open};
             }
          }

DESCRIPTION

       You can use it to check if a port is open or closed for a given host and protocol.

   EXPORT
       None by default. But you can export check_ports();

check_ports()

       This function tests your \%porthash and sets a protocol/port's open and note keys (see
       \%porthash below for details).

       By default it determines if "open" is 1 or 0 if the IO::Socket::INET object is defined or
       not.  For protocols  not supported by IO::Socket::INET or for custom tests (IE open just
       to specific hosts, closed because activley blocked, service is down, etc) use \&handler
       (see \&handler below)

         check_ports($host,$timeout,\%porthash,\&handler);

       Called in void contect it modifies the hashref given. Otherwise it returns a new hash ref
       which is usefull for looping through the same \%porthash for multiple hosts:

         my %porthash = ( ... );
         for(@hosts) {
            my $host_hr = check_ports($_,$timeout,\%porthash);
            print "Report for $_\n";
            # do something with $host_hr
         }

       vs void context:

         my %porthash = ( ... );
         check_ports($host,$timeout,\%porthash);
         # now %porthash has been directly changed

   \%porthash
       This hash is a bit complex by necessity. (but its not so bad ;p)

       The keys are the protocol (tcp, udp, ...) as can be used by IO::Socket::INET->new()'s
       "Proto" option (or whatever is valid for your custom \&handler

       The values are a hashref. In this hashref the keys are the numeric ports and the valuse
       are a hashref.

       This hashref has only one key "name" whose value can be an arbitrary label for your use
       and once run it sets "open" to 1 or 0 and "note" to "builtin()" so you knwo how "open" was
       figured.

          my %check = (
             tcp => {
                80 => {
                   name => 'Apache',
                },
                443 => {
                   name => 'SSL Apache',
                },
             },
             udp => {
                53 => {
                   name => 'DNS'
                },
                465 => {
                   name => 'smtp tls/ssl'
                },
             },
          );

   \&handler
       Here is an example handler function you can use as a road map:

           sub handler {
              my($ent_hr,$host,$port,$proto,$timeout) = @_;

              # use $host, $port, $protocol, and $timeout to determine what you want however you like here

              # at a minimum do these two:
              $ent_hr->{open} = ???; # do what you like to set its open status to 1 or 0
              $ent_hr->{note} = 'my handler()';

              # set any other info you wanted here also...
              if(!$ent_hr->{open}) {
                 $ent_hr->{closed_reason} = ???; # do what you like to set details about why its not open (blocked, not running, etc)
              }
           }

HOW TO EXPAND ON IO::Socket::PortState

       This module's life came around as a result of wanting to monitor specific ports on several
       servers, specifically servers running cPanel (<http://cpanel.net/>).  To make it easier to
       do that and provide a model to make it easier for anyone to create a module that is
       "server specific" I've created IO::Socket::PortState::cPanel

       If you want to do the same thing please use it as a guide, all you would need to do is
       change the hashrefs and package specific info and voila its all set :)

       If you do use IO::Socket::PortState::cPanel as a model (and I hope you do so that using
       any IO::Socket::PortState::* module will have a specific consistent use) please reference
       it in the POD of your module as outlined in the POD of IO::Socket::PortState::cPanel.

AUTHOR

       Daniel Muey, <http://drmuey.com/cpan_contact.pl>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright 2005 by Daniel Muey

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.