README

                     L I B W W W - P E R L - 5
                   -----------------------------


The libwww-perl collection is a set of Perl modules which provides a
simple and consistent application programming interface to the
World-Wide Web.  The main focus of the library is to provide classes
and functions that allow you to write WWW clients. The library also
contain modules that are of more general use and even classes that
help you implement simple HTTP servers.


PREREQUISITES

In order to install and use this package you will need Perl version
5.6 or better.  Some modules within this package depend on other
packages that are distributed separately from Perl.  We recommend that
you have the following packages installed before you install
libwww-perl:

  URI
  MIME-Base64
  HTML-Tagset
  HTML-Parser
  libnet
  Digest-MD5
  Compress-Zlib

If you want to access sites using the https protocol, then you need to
install the Crypt::SSLeay or the IO::Socket::SSL module.  The
README.SSL file will tell you more about how libwww-perl supports SSL.


INSTALLATION

You install libwww-perl using the normal perl module distribution drill:

   perl Makefile.PL
   make
   make test
   make install

If you don't want to install any programs (only the library files) then
pass the '--no-programs' option to Makefile.PL:

   perl Makefile.PL --no-programs


DOCUMENTATION

See the lib/LWP.pm file for an overview of the library. See the
Changes file for recent changes.

POD style documentation is included in all modules and scripts.  These
are normally converted to manual pages and installed as part of the
"make install" process.  You should also be able to use the 'perldoc'
utility to extract and read documentation from the module files
directly.


SUPPORT

Bug reports and suggestions for improvements can be sent to the
<libwww@perl.org> mailing list.  This mailing list is also the place
for general discussions and development of the libwww-perl package.


AVAILABILITY

The latest version of libwww-perl is available from CPAN:

     http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/

If you want to hack on the source it might be a good idea to grab the
latest version with git using the command:

     git clone git://github.com/gisle/libwww-perl.git lwp

You can also browse the git repository at:

     http://github.com/gisle/libwww-perl


COPYRIGHT

  © 1995-2009 Gisle Aas. All rights reserved.
  © 1995 Martijn Koster. All rights reserved.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself.

Enjoy!