NAME

WebSearch - a web-searching application demonstrating WWW::Search

SYNOPSIS

WebSearch [-m MaxCount] [-e SearchEngine] [-o option] [-o option...] [-ardvV] query

DESCRIPTION

This program is provides a command-line interface to web search engines, listing all URLs found for a given query. This program also provides a simple demonstration of the WWW::Search Perl library for web searches.

The program current supports a number of search engines; see WWW::Search for a list.

A more sophisticated client is AutoSearch which maintains a change list of found objects.

For examples and hints about searches, see AutoSearch.

OPTIONS

WebSearch uses Getopt::Long, so you can use double-minus with long option names, or single-minus with one-letter abbreviations.

--engine e_name, -e e_name

The string e_name is the name of (the module for) the desired search engine. Capitalization matters. See `perldoc WWW::Search` to find out what the default is (normally AltaVista)

See WWW::Search for a complete list of supported engines.

--gui, -g

Perform the search to mimic the default browser-based search. Not implemented for all backends, see the documentation for each backend.

--max max_count, -m max_count

Specify the maximum number of hits to retrieve.

--option o_string, -o o_string

Specify a search-engine option in the form 'key=value' (or just 'key'). Can be repeated for as many options are needed. Keys can be repeated.

--count, -c

As the first line of output, print the approximate hit count.

--all, -a

For each hit result, print all the URLs that the search engine indicated were equivalent to it. (Some URLs may refer to the same object.) Can be combined with --verbose; can not be combined with --raw.

--raw, -r

For each hit result, print the raw HTML.

--verbose, -v

Verbose mode. Enumerate the returned URLs and show the description, score, date, etc. for each.

--VERSION, -V

Print version information and exit immediately.

--debug <i>, -d <i>

Display back-end debugging information (with debug level <i>)

--host <hostname.sub.domain>

Set the _host option for the WWW::Search object (backend-dependent).

--port <i>

Set the _port option for the WWW::Search object (backend-dependent).

--lwpdebug, -l

Display low-level libwww-perl debugging information

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The environment variable http_proxy (or HTTP_PROXY) specifies a proxy, if any.

SEE ALSO

For the library, see WWW::Search.

For a more sophisticated client, see AutoSearch.

AUTHOR

WebSearch is written by John Heidemann, <johnh@isi.edu>.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1996-1997 University of Southern California. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation, advertising materials, and other materials related to such distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed by the University of Southern California, Information Sciences Institute. The name of the University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.