Http Client in Perl

Here’s an idiomatic Perl example demonstrating the concept of an HTTP client:

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use LWP::UserAgent;
use HTTP::Request;
use feature 'say';

# Create a user agent object
my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;

# Create a request
my $req = HTTP::Request->new(GET => 'https://perlbyexample.com');

# Send the request and get the response
my $resp = $ua->request($req);

# Check if the request was successful
if ($resp->is_success) {
    # Print the HTTP response status
    say "Response status: ", $resp->status_line;

    # Print the first 5 lines of the response body
    my @lines = split /\n/, $resp->content;
    say $_ for @lines[0..4];
} else {
    # Print the error message if the request failed
    say "HTTP request failed: ", $resp->status_line;
}

This Perl script demonstrates how to create an HTTP client and make a simple GET request. Here’s a breakdown of the code:

1. We use the LWP::UserAgent module, which provides a convenient way to make HTTP requests in Perl.

2. We create a LWP::UserAgent object, which will act as our HTTP client.

3. We create an HTTP::Request object for a GET request to “https://perlbyexample.com”.

4. We send the request using the request method of our user agent and store the response.

5. We check if the request was successful using the is_success method of the response object.

6. If successful, we print the response status and the first 5 lines of the response body.

7. If the request failed, we print an error message.

To run this script:

1. Save the code in a file, e.g., http_client.pl.
2. Make sure you have the required modules installed. You can install them using CPAN:

   cpan LWP::UserAgent HTTP::Request

3. Run the script:

   perl http_client.pl

This example showcases Perl’s strength in handling HTTP requests and parsing responses. The LWP::UserAgent module is widely used in the Perl community for HTTP client functionality, making it an idiomatic choice for this task.

Note that unlike compiled languages, Perl scripts are interpreted and don’t need a separate compilation step. You can run them directly with the Perl interpreter.