---
name: "WWW"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "swish++"
version: "6.1.5-6"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/WWW"
---

# WWW(3)

World Wide Web Package

## NAME

WWW - World Wide Web Package

## SYNOPSIS

```
extract_description( FILE )
extract_meta( FILE, NAME )
hyperlink( LIST )
```

## DESCRIPTION

This package provides a utility functions for the World Wide Web to extract descriptions of or meta information from files, and hyperlink text.

## SUBROUTINES

The following Perl subroutines are defined and available:

- `extract_description( `*FILE*` )`

  Extracts a description from an HTML or plain text file given by the *FILE* name; *FILE* should be an absolute path. The first `$description::chars` (default: 2048) characters are read. If the file ends in one of the extensions `htm`, `html`, or `shtml`, it is presumed to be an HTML file; if the file ends in `txt`, it is presumed to be a plain text file. Other extensions are not recognized and no description is returned for them.

-

  For HTML files, first, if a `<META NAME="description" CONTENT="`...`">` or a `<META NAME="DC.description" CONTENT="`...`">` (Dublin Core) element is found, then the words specified as the value of the `CONTENT` attribute is returned as the description.

-

  Otherwise, all HTML comments, text between `<SCRIPT>`, `<STYLE>`, and `<TITLE>` tags, and all other HTML tags are stripped. If `<AREA` ... `ALT="`...`">` or `<IMG` ... `ALT="...">` elements are found, then the words specified as the value of the `ALT` attributes are extracted.

-

  Finally, for either HTML or plain text files, at most `$description::words` (default: 50) are returned.

- `extract_meta( `*FILE*`, `*NAME*` )`

  Extracts the value of the `CONTENT` attribute from a `META` element having the given `NAME` attribute from an HTML file given by the *FILE* name; *FILE* should be an absolute path. The file must end in one of the extensions `htm`, `html`, or `shtml` to be considered an HTML file. The first `$description::chars` (default: 2048) characters are read. The characters are cached between consecutive calls using the same filename.

- `hyperlink( `*LIST*` )`

  Adds hyperlinks to strings: that is strings that contain substrings that are valid URLs (according to RFC 1630) have the appropriate HTML tags \`\`wrapped'' around them so that they will be selectable when displayed in a browser. The `ftp`, `gopher`, `http`, `https`, `mailto`, `news`, `telnet`, and `wais` URLs are recognized. Example:

  ```
  	Read all about it at
  	http://www.usatoday.com/
  becomes:
  	Read all about it at
  	<A HREF="http://www.usatoday.com/">http://www.usatoday.com/</A>
  ```

## SEE ALSO

[**perl**(1)](/perl/1.md)

Tim Berners-Lee. \`\`Universal Resource Identifiers in WWW,'' *Request for Comments 1630*, Network Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force, June 1994.

Tim Berners-Lee, Larry Masinter, and Mark McCahill. \`\`Uniform Resource Locators (URL),'' *Request for Comments 1738*, Network Working Group, 1994.

Dave Raggett, Arnaud Le Hors, and Ian Jacobs. \`\`Notes on helping search engines index your Web site,'' *HTML 4.0 Specification, Appendix B: Performance, Implementation, and Design Notes*, World Wide Web Consortium, April 1998.

\--. \`\`Objects, Images, and Applets: How to specify alternate text,'' *HTML 4.0 Specification, §13.8*, World Wide Web Consortium, April 1998.

Dublin Core Directorate. \`\`The Dublin Core: A Simple Content Description Model for Electronic Resources.''

Larry Wall, et al. *Programming Perl, 3rd ed.*, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, CA, 2000.

## AUTHOR

Paul J. Lucas \<*pauljlucas@mac.com*\>