IP::World - Fast IP-address to country-code translation using multiple databases
use IP::World; $ipw = IP::World->new($mode); $ccod = $ipw->getcc($ipad);
IP::World returns the ISO-3166 country code associated with an IP4 address. This version is based on two free databases from http://www.wipmania.com and http://www.maxmind.com. An included application checks the currency of the included database on installation, and can be scheduled to do so periodically.
The author uses this package for customizing served web pages to the location of the visitor, particularly to quote prices of items for sale in the visitor's currency. Also for server log analysis.
$ipw = IP::World->new($mode);
In object-oriented terms, this is a constructor. It returns a scalar object that's used in calling the getcc method as described below.
$mode selects the operating mode:
$ccod = $ipw->getcc($ipad);
$ipad should contain an IP4 address in one of two formats:
a dotted quad string like '13.117.255.3'
'13.117.255.3'
a 4-byte packed binary string produced by inet_aton or pack('C4', four values 0-255)
pack('C4', four values 0-255)
The return value from getcc will always be a 2-character string. For most IP addresses this will be one of the codes defined in the ISO-3166 standard. You can see these codes on http://www.iso.org/iso/english_country_names_and_code_elements.
Two return values indicate problems in determining the country code:
** indicates that $ipad was not in either of the two formats described above.
?? indicates that the database doesn't include a mapping for the IP address.
Three Perl scripts are installed with IP::World:
The application checks whether new data is available from either data source. If there is, it downloads the data and builds a new database.
You can run this manually to check for a new database, or (on a server or other 24/7 system) you can schedule it for automatic execution at a non-busy time.
In either case you should run maint_ip_world_db with privilege to rewrite the database file. For Unix/Linux systems this means running it as root, such as by entering the command sudo maint_ip_world_db.
sudo maint_ip_world_db
During installation, you will be asked if a command should be executed by maint_ip_world_db when a new database has been created (e.g., to restart a web server that uses the database).
The install process for IP::World runs maint_ip_world_db to ensure that the most recent data is installed.
Lists the database created by maint_ip_world_db.
Compares the performance of IP::World with that of similar modules.
ip-benchmark showed the following results in one run on the author's server:
Module Total uS uS/call % not covered Geo::IP Standard 281982 68.84 32 Geo::IP Memory Cache 25626 6.26 32 IP::Country::Fast 131887 32.20 29 IP::Country::Fast packed 101378 24.75 29 IP::World fast 9311 2.27 27 IP::World fast packed 6965 1.70 27 IP::World mmap 9084 2.22 27 IP::World mmap packed 7023 1.71 27 IP::World tinyC 207054 50.55 27 IP::World tinyC packed 210123 51.30 27 IP::World tinyPerl 654634 159.82 27 IP::World tinyPerl packed 554801 135.45 27
packed indicates conversion of a packed 32-bit IP address rather than a text address. ip-benchmark uses the same set of random IP addresses for all of the modules in each execution.
Our scripts ip_world_dump and ip-benchmark both use the term 'not covered' to describe IP addresses that do not map to country codes. These fall into 4 categories:
See the README file in the distribution package, or let CPAN or CPANPLUS take care of installation.
Copyright (C) 2010, Craig MacKenna
This module is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl 5.10.1. For more details, see the full text of the licenses at http://www.perlfoundation.org/artistic_license_1_0 and http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but it is provided 'as is' and without any express or implied warranties. For details, see the full text of the licenses at the above URLs.
Craig MacKenna <craig@animalhead.com>
The function of IP-World is almost the same as that of two other CPAN modules:
See http://search.cpan.org/perldoc%3FIP::Country
This module appears to have the disadvantage that its database can only be updated by re-installing the module. With IP-World, MaxMind updates its GeoIP data monthly, and WIPmania updates its WorldIP data every 2 months. Such updates are automatically downloaded if you schedule maint_ip_world_db.
See http://search.cpan.org/perldoc%3FGeo::IP
This uses one of the two data sources that IP-World uses. It can also use MaxMind's licensed, fee-based databases that include more data.
Unfortunately if you want this package to operate at the speeds shown in "PERFORMANCE", you have to download a C library from http://www.maxmind.com and install it from the command line. Someone should tell them about XS modules so that their whole package can be obtained from CPAN or CPANPLUS...
To install IP::World, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm IP::World
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install IP::World
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.