Net::SSLeay::Handle(3)					User Contributed Perl Documentation				    Net::SSLeay::Handle(3)

NAME

       Net::SSLeay::Handle - Perl module that lets SSL (HTTPS) sockets be handled as standard file handles.

SYNOPSIS

	 use Net::SSLeay::Handle qw/shutdown/;
	 my ($host, $port) = ("localhost", 443);

	 tie(*SSL, "Net::SSLeay::Handle", $host, $port);

	 print SSL "GET / HTTP/1.0
";
	 shutdown(*SSL, 1);
	 print while (<SSL>);
	 close SSL;

DESCRIPTION

       Net::SSLeay::Handle allows you to request and receive HTTPS web pages using "old-fashion" file handles as in:

	   print SSL "GET / HTTP/1.0
";

       and

	   print while (<SSL>);

       If you export the shutdown routine, then the only extra code that you need to add to your program is the tie function as in:

	   my $socket;
	   if ($scheme eq "https") {
	       tie(*S2, "Net::SSLeay::Handle", $host, $port);
	       $socket = *S2;
	   else {
	       $socket = Net::SSLeay::Handle->make_socket($host, $port);
	   }
	   print $socket $request_headers;
	   ...

FUNCTIONS

       shutdown
	     shutdown(*SOCKET, $mode)

	   Calls to the main shutdown() don't work with tied sockets created with this module.	This shutdown should be able to distinquish
	   between tied and untied sockets and do the right thing.

       debug
	     my $debug = Net::SSLeay::Handle->debug()
	     Net::SSLeay::Handle->debug(1)

	   Get/set debuging mode. Always returns the debug value before the function call.  if an additional argument is given the debug option
	   will be set to this value.

       make_socket
	     my $sock = Net::SSLeay::Handle->make_socket($host, $port);

	   Creates a socket that is connected to $post using $port. It uses $Net::SSLeay::proxyhost and proxyport if set and authentificates
	   itself against this proxy depending on $Net::SSLeay::proxyauth. It also turns autoflush on for the created socket.

   USING EXISTING SOCKETS
       One of the motivations for writing this module was to avoid duplicating socket creation code (which is mostly error handling).  The calls
       to tie() above where it is passed a $host and $port is provided for convenience testing.  If you already have a socket connected to the
       right host and port, S1, then you can do something like:

	   my $socket *S1;
	   if ($scheme eq "https") {
	       tie(*S2, "Net::SSLeay::Handle", $socket);
	       $socket = *S2;
	   }
	   my $last_sel = select($socket); $| = 1; select($last_sel);
	   print $socket $request_headers;
	   ...

       Note: As far as I know you must be careful with the globs in the tie() function.  The first parameter must be a glob (*SOMETHING) and the
       last parameter must be a reference to a glob (*SOMETHING_ELSE) or a scaler that was assigned to a reference to a glob (as in the example
       above)

       Also, the two globs must be different.  When I tried to use the same glob, I got a core dump.

   EXPORT
       None by default.

       You can export the shutdown() function.

       It is suggested that you do export shutdown() or use the fully qualified Net::SSLeay::Handle::shutdown() function to shutdown SSL sockets.
       It should be smart enough to distinguish between SSL and non-SSL sockets and do the right thing.

EXAMPLES

	 use Net::SSLeay::Handle qw/shutdown/;
	 my ($host, $port) = ("localhost", 443);

	 tie(*SSL, "Net::SSLeay::Handle", $host, $port);

	 print SSL "GET / HTTP/1.0
";
	 shutdown(*SSL, 1);
	 print while (<SSL>);
	 close SSL;

TODO

       Better error handling.  Callback routine?

CAVEATS

       Tying to a file handle is a little tricky (for me at least).

       The first parameter to tie() must be a glob (*SOMETHING) and the last parameter must be a reference to a glob (*SOMETHING_ELSE) or a
       scaler that was assigned to a reference to a glob ($s = *SOMETHING_ELSE).  Also, the two globs must be different.  When I tried to use the
       same glob, I got a core dump.

       I was able to associate attributes to globs created by this module (like *SSL above) by making a hash of hashes keyed by the file head1.

       Support for old perls may not be 100%. If in trouble try 5.6.0 or newer.

CHANGES

       Please see Net-SSLeay-Handle-0.50/Changes file.

KNOWN BUGS

       If you let this module construct sockets for you with Perl versions below v.5.6 then there is a slight memory leak.  Other upgrade your
       Perl, or create the sockets yourself.  The leak was created to let these older versions of Perl access more than one Handle at a time.

AUTHOR

       Jim Bowlin jbowlin@linklint.org

SEE ALSO

       Net::SSLeay, perl(1), http://openssl.org/

perl v5.16.3							    2006-09-14						    Net::SSLeay::Handle(3)