Log::Procmail

$log = Log::Procmail->new( @files );

Constructor for the procmail log reader. Returns a reference to a Log::Procmail object.

The constructor accepts a list of file as parameter. This allows you to read records from several files in a row:

    $log = Log::Procmail->new( "$ENV{HOME}/.procmail/log.2",
                               "$ENV{HOME}/.procmail/log.1",
                               "$ENV{HOME}/.procmail/log", );
    

When $log reaches the end of the file "log", it doesn't close the file. So, after procmail processes some incoming mail, the next call to next() will return the new records.

$rec = $log->next

Return a Log::Procmail::Abstract object that represent an entry in the log file. Return undef if there is no record left in the file.

When the Log::Procmail object reaches the end of a file, and this file is not the last of the stack, it closes the current file and opens the next one.

When it reaches the end of the last file, the file is not closed. Next time the record method is called, it will check again in case new abstracts were appended.

Procmail(1) log look like the following:

    From karen644552@btinternet.com  Fri Feb  8 20:37:24 2002
     Subject: Stock Market Volatility Beating You Up? (18@2)
      Folder: /var/spool/mail/book                                                 2840
    

Some informational messages can be put by procmail(1) in the log file. If the "errors" attribute is true, these lines are returned one at a time.

With errors enabled, you have to check that next() actually returns a Log::Procmail::Abstract object. Here is an example:

    $log->errors(1);

    # fetch data
    while ( $rec = $log->next ) {

        # if it's an error line
        if ( !ref $rec ) {
            # this is not a log, but an informational message
            # do something with it
            next;
        }

        # normal log processing
    }
    

$log->push( $file [, $file2 ...] );

Push one or more files on top of the list of log files to examine. When Log::Procmail runs out of abstracts to return (i.e. it reaches the end of the file), it transparently opens the next file (if there is one) and keeps returning new abstracts.

$log->errors( [bool] );

Set or get the error flag. If set, when the next() method will return the string found in the log file, instead of ignoring it. Be careful: it is a simple string, not a Log::Procmail::Abstract object.

Default is to return no error.

$fh = $log->fh()

Returns the currently opened filehandle, from which the next call to "next()" will try to read a record.

$select = $log->select()

Return a IO::Select object that watches the currently opened filehandle.

You are not supposed to use "add()" or "remove()" on the returned IO::Select object.

Additional warning for "MSWin32", "NetWare", "dos", "VMS", "riscos" and "beos": on those systems, "select()" returns "undef". (Check ext/IO/t/io_sel.t in the Perl sources for details. Hint: look for the message 4-arg select is only valid on sockets.)

Log::Procmail::Abstract

Log::Procmail::next() returns a Log::Procmail::Abstract object.

Log::Procmail::Abstract accessors

The Log::Procmail::Abstract object accessors are named from(), date(), subject(), folder() and size(). They return the relevant information when called without argument, and set it to their first argument otherwise.

    # count mail received per folder
    while( $rec = $log->next ) { $folder{ $rec->folder }++ }
    

The source() accessor returns the name of the log file or the string representation of the handle, if a filehandle was given.

$rec->ymd()

Return the date in the form "yyyymmmddhhmmss" where each field is what you think it is. ";-)" This method is read-only.