new

  my $a1 = Text::Authinfo->new();
  my $a2 = Text::Authinfo->new('/home/me/.otherauthinfofile');

The constructor has an optional argument that can be used to stipulate an alternative authinfofile to use.

readauthinfo

  my $read_success = $a->readauthinfo();

Reads the authinfofile data into "$a->{AUTHINFO}". Returns 1 for success, 0 otherwise.

as_string

  print $a->as_string();

writeauthinfo

  my $write_success1 = $a1->writeauthinfo();
  my $write_success2 = $a2->writeauthinfo({'nobackup'=>1});

Writes the contents of "$a->{AUTHINFO}" into "$a->{FILE}", while creating a backup file with the same path as "$a->{FILE}", but with '.bak' appended.

Passing a hashref with "nobackup" set will prevent this behavior.

Note! this function will overwrite your existing authinfo file. This can be dangerous! Keep backups.

The file written will have mode 0600 applied.

getauth

  my $pw = $a->getauth('machine.example.com','me@example.com','9999');

  my $pw = $a->getauth('machine.example.com','me@example.com');

This function retrieves your password. The required arguments are determined by the contents of the line for each auth. If a port was mandated, you must pass that in as the third parameter as in the first example above. Otherwise, if the auth line in question did not contain a port, do not pass one in here.

This function returns undef if no match is found.