Re: Net::NNTP ping?

[rob_au]

Given that the Net::NNTP module inherits from the IO::Socket class, you may find the connected method inherited from this class to be of use. This method returns the peer address if the socket is in a connected state or an undefined value if the socket is not connected.

For example:

use Net::NNTP;
use Socket;

my $nntp = Net::NNTP->new('news-server');
my $hostaddr = $nntp->connected;
print inet_ntoa((sockaddr_in($hostaddr))[1]), "\n" if defined $hostadd
+r;

[akis]

Hello, thanks for the reply. So I wrote a quick one line test. White spaces added so I can read it. Results are as follows:

perl -MNet::NNTP -MSocket -e '
$n=Net::NNTP->new( localhost,
                   Port=>119,
                   Timeout=>10);
sleep 3600;
print inet_ntoa((sockaddr_in($n->connected()))[1]) || 
      "not connected"'

prints out "127.0.0.1" Either the connection is still open (unlikely), or connected() is lying to me.

[rob_au]

At this point, I would be recommending enabling the Debug argument to the Net::NNTP constructor in your script to show NNTP protocol communication between your client script and local news server.

For example:

rob@development:/home/rob$ cat nntp.perl
use Net::NNTP;
use Socket;

my $nntp = Net::NNTP->new('news-server', 'Debug' => 1);
my $hostaddr = $nntp->connected;
print inet_ntoa((sockaddr_in($hostaddr))[1]), "\n" if defined $hostadd
+r;

rob@development:/home/rob$ perl nntp.perl
Net::NNTP>>> Net::NNTP(2.22)
Net::NNTP>>>   Net::Cmd(2.24)
Net::NNTP>>>     Exporter(5.562)
Net::NNTP>>>   IO::Socket::INET(1.25)
Net::NNTP>>>     IO::Socket(1.26)
Net::NNTP>>>       IO::Handle(1.21)
Net::NNTP=GLOB(0x8262444)<<< 200 Welcome to BigPond Broadband - http:/
+/www.telstra.com/ (Typhoon v2.0.4.336)
Net::NNTP=GLOB(0x8262444)>>> MODE READER
Net::NNTP=GLOB(0x8262444)<<< 200 Welcome to BigPond Broadband - http:/
+/www.telstra.com/ (Typhoon v2.0.4.336)
61.9.191.5
Net::NNTP=GLOB(0x8262444)>>> QUIT
Net::NNTP=GLOB(0x8262444)<<< 205 GoodBye

Furthermore, I would recommend comparing the return result of the connected method with the socket status as reported by operating system tools such as netstat - The usage of this tool to show the status of established TCP sockets would be netstat -t under Linux and netstat -p tcp under Windows.