NAME

       LWP::Simple - simple procedural interface to LWP

SYNOPSIS

        perl -MLWP::Simple -e 'getprint "http://www.sn.no"'

        use LWP::Simple;
        $content = get("http://www.sn.no/");
        die "Couldn't get it!" unless defined $content;

        if (mirror("http://www.sn.no/", "foo") == RC_NOT_MODIFIED) {
            ...
        }

        if (is_success(getprint("http://www.sn.no/"))) {
            ...
        }

DESCRIPTION

       This module is meant for people who want a simplified view of the libwww-perl library.  It
       should also be suitable for one-liners.  If you need more control or access to the header
       fields in the requests sent and responses received, then you should use the full object-
       oriented interface provided by the "LWP::UserAgent" module.

       The following functions are provided (and exported) by this module:

       get($url)
          The get() function will fetch the document identified by the given URL and return it.
          It returns "undef" if it fails.  The $url argument can be either a string or a
          reference to a URI object.

          You will not be able to examine the response code or response headers (like
          'Content-Type') when you are accessing the web using this function.  If you need that
          information you should use the full OO interface (see LWP::UserAgent).

       head($url)
          Get document headers. Returns the following 5 values if successful: ($content_type,
          $document_length, $modified_time, $expires, $server)

          Returns an empty list if it fails.  In scalar context returns TRUE if successful.

       getprint($url)
          Get and print a document identified by a URL. The document is printed to the selected
          default filehandle for output (normally STDOUT) as data is received from the network.
          If the request fails, then the status code and message are printed on STDERR.  The
          return value is the HTTP response code.

       getstore($url, $file)
          Gets a document identified by a URL and stores it in the file. The return value is the
          HTTP response code.

       mirror($url, $file)
          Get and store a document identified by a URL, using If-modified-since, and checking the
          Content-Length.  Returns the HTTP response code.

       This module also exports the HTTP::Status constants and procedures.  You can use them when
       you check the response code from getprint(), getstore() or mirror().  The constants are:

          RC_CONTINUE
          RC_SWITCHING_PROTOCOLS
          RC_OK
          RC_CREATED
          RC_ACCEPTED
          RC_NON_AUTHORITATIVE_INFORMATION
          RC_NO_CONTENT
          RC_RESET_CONTENT
          RC_PARTIAL_CONTENT
          RC_MULTIPLE_CHOICES
          RC_MOVED_PERMANENTLY
          RC_MOVED_TEMPORARILY
          RC_SEE_OTHER
          RC_NOT_MODIFIED
          RC_USE_PROXY
          RC_BAD_REQUEST
          RC_UNAUTHORIZED
          RC_PAYMENT_REQUIRED
          RC_FORBIDDEN
          RC_NOT_FOUND
          RC_METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED
          RC_NOT_ACCEPTABLE
          RC_PROXY_AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED
          RC_REQUEST_TIMEOUT
          RC_CONFLICT
          RC_GONE
          RC_LENGTH_REQUIRED
          RC_PRECONDITION_FAILED
          RC_REQUEST_ENTITY_TOO_LARGE
          RC_REQUEST_URI_TOO_LARGE
          RC_UNSUPPORTED_MEDIA_TYPE
          RC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR
          RC_NOT_IMPLEMENTED
          RC_BAD_GATEWAY
          RC_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE
          RC_GATEWAY_TIMEOUT
          RC_HTTP_VERSION_NOT_SUPPORTED

       The HTTP::Status classification functions are:

       is_success($rc)
          True if response code indicated a successful request.

       is_error($rc)
          True if response code indicated that an error occurred.

       The module will also export the LWP::UserAgent object as $ua if you ask for it explicitly.

       The user agent created by this module will identify itself as "LWP::Simple/#.##" and will
       initialize its proxy defaults from the environment (by calling $ua->env_proxy).

CAVEAT

       Note that if you are using both LWP::Simple and the very popular CGI.pm module, you may be
       importing a "head" function from each module, producing a warning like "Prototype
       mismatch: sub main::head ($) vs none". Get around this problem by just not importing
       LWP::Simple's "head" function, like so:

               use LWP::Simple qw(!head);
               use CGI qw(:standard);  # then only CGI.pm defines a head()

       Then if you do need LWP::Simple's "head" function, you can just call it as
       "LWP::Simple::head($url)".

SEE ALSO

       LWP, lwpcook, LWP::UserAgent, HTTP::Status, lwp-request, lwp-mirror