Network Programming with Perl

"This is a superb book. Another splendid book from Lincoln, whose mastery and lucid exposition make this a must-have for the serious Perl programmer."
--Jon Orwant, Chief Technology Officer, O'Reilly & Associates Founder of The Perl Journal, author of Mastering Algorithms with Perl, (O'Reilly & Associates)
and co-author of Programming Perl, Third Edition (O'Reilly & Associates)

Network Programming with Perl is a comprehensive, example-rich guide to creating network-based applications using the Perl programming language. Among its many capabilities, modern Perl provides a straightforward and powerful interface to TCP/IP, and this book shows you how to leverage these capabilities to create robust, maintainable, and efficient custom client/server applications.

The book quickly moves beyond the basics to focus on high-level, application programming concepts, tools, and techniques. Readers will find a review of basic networking concepts and Perl fundamentals, including Perl's I/O functions, process model, and object-oriented extensions. In addition, the book examines a collection of the best third-party modules in the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, including existing network protocols for e-mail, news, and the Web.

The core of the book focuses on methods and alternatives for designing TCP-based client/server systems and more advanced techniques for specialized applications. Specific topics covered include:

• The Berkeley Sockets API
• The TCP protocol and the IO::Socket API
• FTP filesharing service
• The Net::Telnet module for adapting clients to interactive network services
• SMTP, including how to create and send e-mails with multimedia attachments
• POP, IMAP, and NNTP for receiving and processing e-mail
• HTTP and the LWP module for communicating with Web servers
• Forking servers and the UNIX and Windows inetd daemons
• Perl's experimental multithreaded API
• Multiplexed operations and nonblocking I/O
• Bulletproofing servers
• TCP urgent data
• UDP protocol and servers
• Broadcasting and multicasting
• Interprocess communication with UNIX-domain sockets

Useful, working programs demonstrate ideas and techniques in action, including a real-time chat and messaging system, a program for processing e-mail containing MIME attachments, a program for mirroring an FTP site, and a Web robot.

Network Programming with Perl focuses on TCP/IP rather than just the common Web protocols. Modeled after the critically acclaimed TCP/IP Illustrated by W. Richard Stevens, this book achieves a level of detail far superior to most. It is an essential resource for network administrators and Perl programmers who are creating network applications.

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A text focusing on the methods and alternatives for designed TCP/IP-based client/server systems and advanced techniques for specialized applications with Perl. A guide examining a collection of the best third party modules in the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network.

Electronic Review of Computer Books - Gregory V. Wilson

Network Programming with Perl is clear, accurate, well organized, and comprehensive without being exhausting. After a five-chapter introduction to basic concepts, such as Perl I/O and the TCP protocol, Stein explains how to develop clients for common services such as FTP, Telnet, SMTP, POP, and so on. The third part of the book then looks at TCP-based client/server systems, with chapters on forking servers, multithreading, multiplexing, and nonblocking I/O. The last part covers advanced topics, including urgent data, UDP, broadcasting, and multicasting.

Every chapter has lots of short examples, many of which would be good starting points for real applications. What's even better, Stein takes the time to explain why things ought to be done certain ways, and which problems can be avoided by using which techniques.

Lincoln Stein has an M.D. and is a scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. When the Web first emerged, he created and maintained one of the earliest Internet sites for distribution of Human Genome Project data and has since become an acknowledged expert in Web, network, and Perl programming. Known for his exceptional ability to synthesize and present complex information, he writes for The Perl Journal and Web Techniques magazines and is the author of four other books.