Provided by: libmail-bulkmail-perl_3.12-7_all 
NAME
Mail::Bulkmail::Server - handles server connections and communication for Mail::Bulkmail
AUTHOR
Jim Thomason, jim@jimandkoka.com
SYNOPSIS
my $server = Mail::Bulkmail::Server->new(
'Smtp' => 'your.smtp.com',
'Port' => 25
) || die Mail::Bulkmail::Server->error();
#connect to the SMTP relay
$server->connect || die $server->error();
#talk to the server
my $response = $server->talk_and_respond("RSET");
DESCRIPTION
Mail::Bulkmail::Server now handles server connections. Mail::Bulkmail 1.x and 2.x had all
the server functionality built into the module itself. That was nice in terms of
simplicity - one module, one connection, one server, and so on. But it had some downsides.
For one thing, it only allowed for one connection. And since I wanted to allow multiple
server connections in 3.00, that had to go. For another, it was a pain in the butt to
change the server implementation. This way, you can easily write your own server class,
drop it in here, and be off to the races.
For example, the Mail::Bulkmail::DummyServer module for debugging purposes.
This is not a module that you'll really need to access directly, since it is accessed
internally by Mail::Bulkmail when it is needed. Specify the data you need in the conf file
and the server_file attribute, and you won't ever need to touch this directly.
ATTRIBUTES
Smtp stores the Smtp relay's address.
$server->Smtp("your.smtp.com");
can either be an IP or a named address
Smtp values should be set in your server file.
Port stores the port on which you'll try to connect to the SMTP relay. Probably
going to be 25, since that's the standard SMTP port.
$server->Port(25);
Port values should be set in either your server file, or a single default in
your conf file.
Domain When you connect to an SMTP server, you must say hello and state your domain.
This is your domain that you use to say hello.
$server->Domain('mydomain.com');
This should be the same name of the domain of the machine that you are
connecting on.
Domain should be set in your conf file.
Tries When you try to connect to an SMTP server via ->connect, you may have issues
with creating the socket or making the connection. Tries specifies how many
times you should re-try making the socket or making the connection before
failing to connect.
Make this a small number.
$server->Tries(5);
Tries should be set in your conf file.
max_connection_attempts
This is similar to Tries, but this governs the number of times that you can
call the ->connect method. When you have multiple servers in Mail::Bulkmail's
->servers array, there's no point in constantly re-trying to connect to a
server that fails. it'll just slow you down. max_connection_attempts makes sure
that you stop trying to connect to invalid servers.
Make this a small number as well.
$server->max_connection_attempts(7);
max_connection_attempts should be set in your conf file.
envelope_limit
It's entirely likely that with a very large list you'll have a very large
number of people in the same domain. For instance, there are an awful lot of
people that have yahoo addresses. So, for example, say that you have a list of
100,000 people and 20,000 of them are in the yahoo.com domain and you're
sending using the envelope. That means that the server at yahoo.com is going
to receive one message with 20,000 people in the envelope!
Now, this might be a bad thing. We don't know if the yahoo.com mail server
will actually process a message with 20,000 envelope recipients. It may or may
not and the only way to find out is to try it. If it does work, then great no
worries. But if it doesn't, then you're stuck. If you stop using envelope
sending, you sacrifice its major speed gains, but if you keep using it you
can't send to yahoo.com.
envelope_limit fixes that.
envelope_limit is precisely what it sounds like, it allows you to specify a
limit on the number of recipients that will be specified in your envelope.
That way, with our previous example, you can specify an envelope limit of 1000,
for example.
$bulk->envelope_limit(1000);
This means that yahoo.com will get 20 messages, each with 1000 recipients in
the envelope. Of course, this still may not be small enough, so you can tweak
it as much as necessary.
Setting an envelope limit does trade off some of the gains from using the
envelope, but it's still over all a vast speed boost over not using it.
envelope_limit should be set in your conf file. I recommend setting it to 100,
but tweak it as necessary. Higher values allow you to send more information and
do it faster, but you're more likely to run into server's that refuse that many
recipients. Lower values are more compatible, but slightly slower.
Set envelope_limit to 0 for an infinite limit. You should never have to set it
below 100 (unless you're using an infinite limit), since RFC 2822 says that
SMTP servers should always accept at least 100 recipients in the envelope
max_messages
max_messages sets the maximum number of messages to send to a particular
server. This is mainly useful if you're bulkmailing to multiple servers. You
may have a server that can take some of the load, but not much of it. Assume
that your list has over 100,000 people on it, and you're using one primary SMTP
relay and one smaller SMTP relay to help take some of the load off of the main
one. Your primary SMTP server can handle lots of messages, but your smaller one
can only take a smaller load. That'd a good place for max_messages.
$aux_server->max_messages(10000);
That way, your smaller server will relay no more than 10,000 messages.
Set max_messages to 0 for an infinite number of messages to go through the
server. It is recommended to set max_messages to 0.
max_messages_per_robin
when you set up your bulkmail object with multiple servers,
max_messages_per_robin is used to determine how many messages are sent to a
server before moving onto the next.
This is the maximum number of messages that would be sent to a server in a
given iteration before moving on to the next, but it is not necessarily the
exact number of messages that will be sent. If the server has reached the
maximum number of messages allowed, or the maximum number in a given
connection, it will jump to the next server before reaching the robin limit.
Set max_messages_per_robin to 0 for an infinite number of messages allowed on a
given server iteration. It is recommended to set this to 500 if you're using
multiple servers, and to 0 if you're using 1 server.
The message robin counter is reset by reset_all_counters
max_messages_per_connection
This sets the maximum number of messages that would be sent to a given SMTP
relay in a given connection. When this limit is reached, the server will
disconnect and return that it has reached a limit.
set max_messages_per_connection to 0 for infinite messages per connection. It
is recommended to keep this at 0.
The message connection counter is reset by reset_all_counters
max_messages_while_awake
Sometimes, it may be useful to pause and give your server a break.
max_messages_while_awake allows this. This will specify the number of messages
to send to a server before going to sleep for a certain period of time.
$server->max_messages_while_awake(100);
Will send 100 messages to the server and then go to sleep. for the time
specified by sleep_length.
Note that reaching this limit will not cause reached_limit to return a true
value, so in a multi-server environment, you'll end up sleeping a lot.
The message-while-awake counter is reset by reset_all_counters, so it is of
dubious utility when using multiple servers.
Set max_messages_while_awake to 0 to never sleep. It is recommended to have
max_messages_while_awake set to 0 when using multiple servers. Set it to a
positive number when using one server.
sleep_length
Specifies the time to sleep (in seconds) if the server has reached the
max_messages_while_awake limit.
talk_attempts
The response codes for SMTP are pretty rigorously defined, which is obviously
very useful. a 5xy error is permanently fatal. a 4xy error is temporarily
fatal. It is recommended that if a 4xy error is encountered, that the client
(us) should try re-sending the same command again. talk_attempts specifies the
number of times to try resending a command after receiving a 400 level error
from the server.
$server->talk_attempts(5);
time_out We can *finally* time out! So if your SMTP relay doesn't respond for a set
period of time, the connection will automatically disconnect and fail with an
error. Set this to something high, the value is in seconds.
$server->time_out(3000); # 5 minutes
time_of_last_message
stores the time that the last message was sent through this server, in epoch
seconds.
connected boolean attribute that says whether or not this server object is connected to
an SMTP relay.
Don't set this value, only read it.
CONVERSATION
This is an optional log file to keep track of your SMTP conversations
CONVERSATION may be either a coderef, globref, arrayref, or string literal.
If a string literal, then Mail::Bulkmail::Server will attempt to open that file
(in append mode) as your log:
$server->CONVERSATION("/path/to/my/conversation");
If a globref, it is assumed to be an open filehandle in append mode:
open (C, ">>/path/to/my/conversation");
$server->CONVERSATION(\*C);
if a coderef, it is assumed to be a function to call with the address as an
argument:
sub C { print "CONVERSATION : ", $_[1], "\n"}; #or whatever your code is
$server->CONVERSATION(\&C);
if an arrayref, then the conversation will be pushed on to the end of it
$server->CONVERSATION(\@conversation);
Use whichever item is most convenient, and Mail::Bulkmail::Server will take it
from there.
Be warned: This file is going to get huge. Massively huge. You should only turn
this on for debugging purposes and never in a production environment. It will
log the first 50 characters of a message sent to the server, and the full
server response.
socket socket contains the socket that this Server has opened to its SMTP relay.
You'll probably never talk to this directly, but it's here, just in case you
want it.
METHODS
increment_messages_sent
This method will increment the server object's internal counters storing the
total number of messages sent, the total sent this robin, the total sent this
connection, the total sent while awake, and the total sent this envelope.
It will also store the time the last message is sent.
reset_message_counters
This message will reset the internal counters for the messages sent this robin,
messages sent this connection, and messages sent while awake back to 0.
reset_envelope_counter
The envelope counter behaves slightly differently than the other counters, so
we have a separate method to reset the internal envelope counter.
reached_envelope_limit
This method returns 1 if we've reached the envelope limit, 0 otherwise
reached_limit
This method will tell you if the server has reached the max_messages,
max_messages_per_connection, or max_messages_per_robin limits. Also, if you
reach the max_messages_while_awake limit, this method will cause you to sleep
for the time period specified in sleep_length
Return values:
1 : reached max_messages limit, server becomes worthless and will not be used again
2 : reached max_messages_per_connection limit, server will disconnect
3 : reached max_messages_per_robin limit
new Standard constructor. See Mail::Bulkmail::Object for more information.
connect Connects this server object to the SMTP relay specified with ->Smtp and ->Port
This method will set ->connected to 1 if it successfully connects.
$server->connect() || die "Could not connect : " . $server->error;
Upon connection, ->connect will issue a HELO command for the ->Domain
specified.
This method is known to be able to return:
MBS001 - cannot connect to worthless servers
MBS002 - could not make socket
MBS003 - could not connect to server
MBS004 - no response from server
MBS005 - server won't say HELO
MBS010 - can't greet server w/o domain
MBS011 - server gave an error for EHLO
MBS015 - timed out waiting for response upon connect
MBS016 - server didn't respond to EHLO, trying HELO (non-returning error)
MBS017 - cannot connect to server, no Tries parameter
disconnect disconnects the server object from the SMTP relay. Before disconnect, it will
issue a "RSET" and then a "quit" command to the SMTP server, then close the
socket. disconnect sets ->connected to 0.
disconnect can also disconnect quietly, i.e., it won't try to issue a RSET and
then quit before closing the socket.
$server->disconnect(); #issues RSET and quit
$server->disconnect('quietly'); #issues nothing
talk_and_respond
talk_and_respond takes one argument and sends it to your SMTP relay. It then
listens for a response.
my $response = $server->talk_and_respond("RSET");
If you're not connected to the relay, talk_and_respond will attempt to connect.
This method is known to be able to return:
MBS006 - cannot talk w/o speech
MBS007 - cannot talk to server
MBS008 - server won't respond to speech
MBS009 - server disconnected
MBS012 - temporarily won't respond to speech...re-trying
MBS013 - could never resolve temporary error
MBS014 - timed out waiting for response
MBS018 - No file descriptor
create_all_servers
create_all_servers will iterate through the file specified in server_file in
the conf file and return an arrayref of all server objects created.
define package Mail::Bulkmail::Server
server_file = ./server_file.txt
your server file should be of the format of another Mail::Bulkmail conf file,
containing definitions for all of the SMTP servers you want to use. See the
examples below for how to set up the conf files.
If you would like to specify a different conf file, pass that as an argument.
my $servers = Mail::Bulkmail::Server->create_all_servers('/path/to/new/server_file.txt');
This will then ignore the server_file in the conf file and use the one passed.
You may also pass hashrefs of init data for new servers.
my $servers = Mail::Bulkmail::Server->create_all_servers(
{
'Smtp' => 'smtp.yourdomain.com'
},
{
'Smtp' => 'smtp2.yourdomain.com'
},
{
'Smtp' => 'smtp3.yourdomain.com'
}
) || die Mail::Bulkmail::Server->error;
This is called internally by Mail::Bulkmail's constructor, so you probably
won't ever need to touch it.
SAMPLE SERVER FILE
It is recommended that you define your server entries in your server file. See
Mail::Bulkmail::Object and Mail::Bulkmail for more information on conf file set up and how
to define your server_file.
#in your conf file, you want this
define package Mail::Bulkmail::Server
#your server file
server_file = /etc/mb/server.file.txt
Now, your server file should look like this:
define package Mail::Bulkmail::Server
#set up the first server
Smtp @= smtp1.yourdomain.com
Port @= 25
Tries @= 5
max_messages_per_robin @= 1000
envelope_limit @= 100
#set up the second server
Smtp @= smtp2.yourdomain.com
Port @= 25
Tries @= 5
max_messages_per_robin @= 1000
envelope_limit @= 100
#set up the third server
Smtp @= smtp3.yourdomain.com
Port @= 25
Tries @= 5
max_messages_per_robin @= 1000
envelope_limit @= 100
Alternatively, you can use defaults in your master conf file.
#your server file
server_file = /etc/mb/server.file.txt
#These values will apply to all servers
Port = 25
Tries = 5
max_message_per_robin = 1000
envelope_limit = 100
Now, your server file should look like this:
define package Mail::Bulkmail::Server
#set up the first server
Smtp @= smtp1.yourdomain.com
#set up the second server
Smtp @= smtp2.yourdomain.com
#set up the third server
Smtp @= smtp3.yourdomain.com
Be warned that if you want to set up a value for one server, you should set it up for all
of them. Either specify the attribute for a server in the master conf file, or specify it
multiple times for all servers.
SEE ALSO
Mail::Bulkmail, Mail::Bulkmail::DummyServer
COPYRIGHT (again)
Copyright and (c) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 James A Thomason III (jim@jimandkoka.com).
All rights reserved. Mail::Bulkmail::Server is distributed under the terms of the Perl
Artistic License.
CONTACT INFO
So you don't have to scroll all the way back to the top, I'm Jim Thomason
(jim@jimandkoka.com) and feedback is appreciated. Bug reports/suggestions/questions/etc.
Hell, drop me a line to let me know that you're using the module and that it's made your
life easier. :-)