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 supports a number of search engines;
use WebSearch --list to see which backends are installed.
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
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 (probably Null).
Use --list to get a list of installed backends.
"--gui,
Perform the search to mimic the default browser-based search.
Not implemented for all backends, see the documentation for each backend.
"--list"
Prints to STDERR a \n-separated list of installed backends.
"--max
Specify the maximum number of hits to retrieve.
"--option
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,
As the first line of output, print the approximate hit count.
As the last line of output, print the actual hit count.
"--terse,
Do not print any URLs.
Only useful if you also specify --count.
If you specify --terse but not --count,
there will be no output no matter how many hits are found!
"--all,
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,
For each hit result, print the raw HTML.
Not implemented for all backends.
"--verbose,
Verbose mode. Enumerate the returned URLs and show the description,
score, date, etc. for each.
"--VERSION,
Print version information and exit immediately.
"--debug
Display back-end debugging information (with debug level <i>)
"--host
Set the _host option for the WWW::Search object (backend-dependent).
"--port
Set the _port option for the WWW::Search object (backend-dependent).
"--username
Set the username with which to login to the backend.
"--password
Set the password with which to login to the backend.
"--lwpdebug,
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" was written by John Heidemann, <johnh@isi.edu>.
"WebSearch" is maintained by Martin Thurn, <mthurn@cpan.org>.
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.
