I hate the Perl SMTP libraries

At home I have Net::SMTP::TLS and Net::SMTP::SSL installed and I’ve managed to use both to send mail via my Google account.

On one of my hosting services, I have only Net::SMTP::SSL, and it just won’t work.

Debug output at home:

Net::SMTP::SSL>>> Net::SMTP::SSL(1.01)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>   IO::Socket::SSL(1.24)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>     IO::Socket::INET(1.31)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>       IO::Socket(1.31)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>         IO::Handle(1.28)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>           Exporter(5.58)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>   Net::Cmd(2.29)
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)<<< 220 mx.google.com ESMTP 24sm915314eyx.9
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)>>> EHLO localhost.localdomain
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)<<< 250-mx.google.com at your service, [80.219.173.68]
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)<<< 250-SIZE 35651584
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)<<< 250-8BITMIME
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)<<< 250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)<<< 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)<<< 250 PIPELINING
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)>>> AUTH LOGIN
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)<<< 334 VXNlcm5hbWU6
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)>>> a2Vuc2FuYXRh
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)<<< 334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)>>> VGgsYmFpZA==
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)<<< 235 2.7.0 Accepted
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0x186fc04)>>> MAIL FROM:<kensanata@gmail.com>

Notice the AUTH LOGIN command.

Debug output on my host:

Net::SMTP::SSL>>> Net::SMTP::SSL(1.01)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>   IO::Socket::SSL(1.16)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>     IO::Socket::INET(1.31)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>       IO::Socket(1.30_01)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>         IO::Handle(1.27)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>           Exporter(5.62)
Net::SMTP::SSL>>>   Net::Cmd(2.29)
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0xa025520)<<< 220 mx.google.com ESMTP 10sm135225eyz.42
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0xa025520)>>> EHLO localhost.localdomain
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0xa025520)<<< 250-mx.google.com at your service, [83.137.100.36]
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0xa025520)<<< 250-SIZE 35651584
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0xa025520)<<< 250-8BITMIME
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0xa025520)<<< 250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0xa025520)<<< 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0xa025520)<<< 250 PIPELINING
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0xa025520)>>> MAIL FROM:<kensanata@gmail.com>
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0xa025520)<<< 530-5.5.1 Authentication Required. Learn more at
Net::SMTP::SSL=GLOB(0xa025520)<<< 530 5.5.1 http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=14257 10sm135225eyz.42

Notice the error: Authentication Required.

Why is the same script (I checked twice – I sure hope I’m not confusing anything) not using the AUTH LOGIN command?

I don’t understand.

  my $mail = new MIME::Entity->build(To => $from, # test!
				     From => $from,
				     Subject => 'Test Net::SMTP::SSL',
				     Path => $fh,
				     Type => "text/html");
  my $smtp = Net::SMTP::SSL->new($host, Port => 465,
				 Debug => 1);
  $smtp->auth($user, $password);
  $smtp->mail($from);
  $smtp->to($from); # test!
  $smtp->data;
  $smtp->datasend($mail->stringify);
  $smtp->dataend;
  $smtp->quit;

Source is available. [1]

Output of perl -MNet::SMTP::SSL -wle 'for (keys %INC) { next if m[^/]; $m = $_; $m =~ s[/][::]g; $m =~ s/\.pm$//; print "$m ", $m->VERSION || "<unknown>" }' as suggested on #perl:

Net::SSLeay 1.35
IO::Handle 1.28
List::Util 1.14
SelectSaver 1.00
IO::Socket 1.31
warnings 1.03
Symbol 1.05
Scalar::Util 1.14
IO::Socket::INET 1.31
Exporter 5.58
Errno 1.09
IO::Socket::SSL 1.24
warnings::register 1.00
XSLoader 0.02
Net::Config 1.11
Net::Cmd 2.29
utf8 1.04
Config <unknown>
IO 1.25
IO::Socket::UNIX 1.23
Carp 1.03
bytes 1.01
Exporter::Heavy 5.58
Net::SMTP 2.31
vars 1.01
strict 1.03
Net::SMTP::SSL 1.01
constant 1.04
Socket 1.77
AutoLoader 5.60
DynaLoader 1.05

Net::SSLeay 1.35
XSLoader 0.08
IO::Handle 1.27
warnings::register 1.01
Net::Config 1.11
List::Util 1.19
SelectSaver 1.01
Net::Cmd 2.29
IO::Socket 1.30_01
warnings 1.06
utf8 1.07
IO::Socket::UNIX 1.23
IO 1.23_01
Symbol 1.06
bytes 1.03
Carp 1.08
Net::SMTP 2.31
Scalar::Util 1.19
Exporter::Heavy 5.62
IO::Socket::INET 1.31
Net::SMTP::SSL 1.01
strict 1.04
vars 1.01
Exporter 5.62
constant 1.13
Socket 1.80
Errno 1.1
IO::Socket::SSL 1.16
AutoLoader 5.63

Hm…

Update: I found the problem and submitted a bug: The remote system is a Debian system, and the admin installed libnet-smtp-ssl-perl. If you look at the Net::SMTP code, however, you’ll see the following:

sub auth {
  my ($self, $username, $password) = @_;

  eval {
    require MIME::Base64;
    require Authen::SASL;
  } or $self->set_status(500, ["Need MIME::Base64 and Authen::SASL
todo auth"]), return 0;

There is therefore a dependency on Authen::SASL. If you don’t have that module, sending your email will fail in a non-obvious way, as seen above. Installing libauthen-sasl-perl fixes the problem.

Tags: PerlSMTP