NAME

       Net::Netrc - OO interface to users netrc file

SYNOPSIS

           use Net::Netrc;

           $mach = Net::Netrc->lookup('some.machine');
           $login = $mach->login;
           ($login, $password, $account) = $mach->lpa;

DESCRIPTION

       "Net::Netrc" is a class implementing a simple interface to the .netrc file used as by the
       ftp program.

       "Net::Netrc" also implements security checks just like the ftp program, these checks are,
       first that the .netrc file must be owned by the user and second the ownership permissions
       should be such that only the owner has read and write access. If these conditions are not
       met then a warning is output and the .netrc file is not read.

THE .netrc FILE

       The .netrc file contains login and initialization information used by the auto-login
       process.  It resides in the user's home directory.  The following tokens are recognized;
       they may be separated by spaces, tabs, or new-lines:

       machine name
           Identify a remote machine name. The auto-login process searches the .netrc file for a
           machine token that matches the remote machine specified.  Once a match is made, the
           subsequent .netrc tokens are processed, stopping when the end of file is reached or
           an- other machine or a default token is encountered.

       default
           This is the same as machine name except that default matches any name.  There can be
           only one default token, and it must be after all machine tokens.  This is normally
           used as:

               default login anonymous password user@site

           thereby giving the user automatic anonymous login to machines not specified in .netrc.

       login name
           Identify a user on the remote machine.  If this token is present, the auto-login
           process will initiate a login using the specified name.

       password string
           Supply a password.  If this token is present, the auto-login process will supply the
           specified string if the remote server requires a password as part of the login
           process.

       account string
           Supply an additional account password.  If this token is present, the auto-login
           process will supply the specified string if the remote server requires an additional
           account password.

       macdef name
           Define a macro. "Net::Netrc" only parses this field to be compatible with ftp.

CONSTRUCTOR

       The constructor for a "Net::Netrc" object is not called new as it does not really create a
       new object. But instead is called "lookup" as this is essentially what it does.

       lookup ( MACHINE [, LOGIN ])
           Lookup and return a reference to the entry for "MACHINE". If "LOGIN" is given then the
           entry returned will have the given login. If "LOGIN" is not given then the first entry
           in the .netrc file for "MACHINE" will be returned.

           If a matching entry cannot be found, and a default entry exists, then a reference to
           the default entry is returned.

           If there is no matching entry found and there is no default defined, or no .netrc file
           is found, then "undef" is returned.

METHODS

       login ()
           Return the login id for the netrc entry

       password ()
           Return the password for the netrc entry

       account ()
           Return the account information for the netrc entry

       lpa ()
           Return a list of login, password and account information fir the netrc entry

AUTHOR

       Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>

SEE ALSO

       Net::Netrc Net::Cmd

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 1995-1998 Graham Barr. All rights reserved.  This program is free software;
       you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.