NAME

Text::Netstring - Perl module for manipulation of netstrings

SYNOPSIS

 use Text::Netstring qw(netstring_encode netstring_decode netstring_verify);

 $ns = netstring_encode($text);
 @ns = netstring_encode(@text);
 $ns = netstring_encode(@text);

 $text = netstring_decode($ns);
 @text = netstring_decode(@ns);
 $text = netstring_decode(@ns);

 $valid = netstring_verify($string);
 @valid = netstring_verify(@string);

DESCRIPTION

This module is a collection of functions to make use of netstrings in your perl programs. A netstring is a string encoding used by, at least, QMTP and QMQP.

netstring_encode()

Encode the supplied string, or list of strings, as a netstring.

Supplying a scalar argument in a scalar context or list argument in list context does what you'd expect; encoding the scalar or each element of the list, as appropriate. Supplying a list argument in a scalar context, however, returns a single scalar which is the concatenation of each element of the list encoded as a netstring.

netstring_decode()

Decode the supplied netstring, or list of netstrings, returning the interpretation of each.

The same context handling as for netstring_encode() applies.

netstring_verify()

Check the validity of the supplied netstring, or list of netstrings. Returns a TRUE or FALSE value, or list of same, as appropriate. Supplying a list argument in a scalar context will return a value for the first element of the list only.

NOTES

The format of a netstring is described in http://cr.yp.to/proto/qmtp.txt

AUTHOR

James Raftery <james@now.ie>.